Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 

45 Iraqis Killed, 63 Injured in Attacks, Including 33 in Strike on a Shi'i Mosque in Baghdad

September 11, 2013

45 killed, 63 wounded in violent attacks in Iraq

BAGHDAD, September 11, 2013 (Xinhua) --

At least 45 people were killed and 63 others wounded in separate violent attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, interior ministry and police sources said.

A suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt blew himself up at al Temimi mosque in the Kasra area in northern Baghdad at about 6: 40 p.m. (1540 GMT), killing at least 30 people and injuring 55 others, a source in the Iraqi interior ministry told Xinhua.

The Iraqi security forces closed all the roads that lead to the explosion site as the wounded were rushed to hospital for treatment, the source added.

Earlier in the day, 15 people were killed and eight others wounded in separate attacks in Iraq, police said.

In the northern province of Nineveh, four soldiers were killed, including an officer, when gunmen using assault rifles attacked their checkpoint in southeast of the provincial capital city of Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

In a separate incident, a primary school principal was shot dead by gunmen in front of his house in eastern Mosul, the source said.

Meanwhile, gunmen shot dead a civilian in a village south of Mosul, while a police force found unidentified bodies of two young men in eastern the city, with bullet holes in their heads and chests, the source added.

In Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, three policemen were killed and four wounded when gunmen attacked a checkpoint near the town of Buhruz, just south of the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad, a provincial police source anonymously told Xinhua.

Separately, an official of the Sunni endowment office, responsible for running the Sunni mosques, was killed with his wife in a roadside bomb explosion near their car in the city of Kan'an, some 20 km east of Baquba, the source said.

In addition, a child was killed and four people were wounded when two roadside bombs went off near two houses in the eastern suburb of the city of Maqdadiyah, some 40 km northeast of Baquba, the source added.

In southern Iraq, gunmen shot dead a Sunni imam near his mosque in the town of Abu al-Khasib in southeast of the oil-hub city of Basra, some 550 km south of Baghdad, an official from the Sunni endowment told reporters.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the al-Qaida front in Iraq, in most cases, was responsible for such violent acts in the country, raising fears that the terrorist group could return to widespread violence.

Since early this year Iraq has witnessed worsening security situation and repeatedly massive bombings that have targeted different cities, indicating that high-profile violent attacks are still common in Iraq despite the dramatic decrease in violence since its peak in 2006 and 2007, when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

Deadly bombings strike Shi'i mosque in Baghdad

AFP, France 24, By News Wires (text) , September 11, 2013

At least 33 people were killed in a co-ordinated car and suicide bomb attack on a Shi'i mosque in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Wednesday, police and medical sources said.

A co-ordinated car and suicide bomb attack on a Shi’ite mosque in the Iraqi capital killed at least 33 people on Wednesday evening, police and medical sources said.

Worshippers were leaving the mosque after evening prayers when the car bomb exploded, and as onlookers rushed to help the wounded, a suicide bomber blew himself up in their midst.

Policemen saw a second man fumbling to detonate an explosive belt and managed to stop him, but an angry mob overcame them and stabbed the would-be-suicide bomber to death.

A further 55 people were wounded, some critically, in the blasts, which took place in the northwestern Kasra district of Baghdad.

More than two years of civil war in neighbouring Syria have brought sectarian tensions to the boil in Iraq and the wider region.

About 800 Iraqis were killed in August, according to the United Nations, with more than a third of the deadly attacks happening in Baghdad.

The bloodshed, 18 months after U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq, has stirred concerns about a return to the sectarian slaughter of 2006-7, when the monthly death toll sometimes topped 3,000.