Roundup: At least 73 killed, 148 wounded in wave of attacks in Iraq
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E-mail Xinhua, May 18, 2013
A wave of bombing attacks struck war-torn Iraq on Friday, leaving at least 73 people dead and 148 others wounded, police and officials said.
At least 41 people were killed and 56 others injured in two blasts, which hit almost simultaneously in Baquba, capital of eastern Iraq's Diyala province, after the Friday prayer, the city' s mayor Abdullah Hayali told Xinhua.
The two roadside bombs exploded near the Saroya mosque in Baquba, 65 km northeast of Iraq's capital of Baghdad, and hit the Sunni worshipers as they were leaving the mosque after prayer, he said.
At least 22 people were killed and 57 others wounded in three roadside bomb attacks on Friday evening in Iraq's capital city of Baghdad, a police source said.
A roadside bomb exploded in the Amiriya district in western Baghdad, killing 19 people and wounding 32 others, the police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Another roadside bomb in the Doraa district in southern Baghdad killed two people and wounded 20 others, he said.
A third roadside bomb exploded in the Gazaliyah district in western Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding five others, the source said.
In the unrest city of Fulluja, some 50 km west of Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck a coffee shop and led to two people dead and eight others injured, he added.
Also on Friday, at least eight people were killed and 25 others wounded in a roadside bomb attack at a funeral in central Iraq, an Interior Ministry source said.
The roadside bomb exploded at the funeral for a local official in the town of Madain, some 30 km south of Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
Violence is still common in Iraq despite a dramatic decrease since its peak in 2006 and 2007, when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks, but the al-Qaida front in Iraq, in most cases, were responsible for such massive attacks in the country, raising fears that the terrorist group and other militia could return to widespread violence, particularly as Iraq is trying to fend off the spillover of the ongoing violence in neighboring Syria.
The sectarian tension between the Sunni and Shiite communities has been at its highest level since the U.S. troops pulled out from the country at the end of 2011, as the Sunni's protests against the Shiite-led government have continued since last December in the Sunni provinces and the Sunni districts in Baghdad.
Furious Sunnis accused the government of marginalizing them and claimed that the Shiite-dominated Iraqi security forces were indiscriminately arresting their sons and torturing them.
The top UN official in Iraq on Friday urged the Iraqi leaders to better protect civilians following a wave of bombings across the country in recent days, a spokesman told reporters in New York.
"Martin Kobler, the Secretary-general's Special Representative for Iraq, urged all Iraqi leaders to do everything possible to protect Iraqi civilians, as another wave of bombings hit the country during the past few days and claimed more innocent lives," said Martin Nesirky, the UN spokesperson, at a daily briefing.
"Small children have been burned alive in cars and worshippers cut down outside their own mosques," Nesirky quoted Kobler as saying. "This is beyond unacceptable."
The envoy stressed that it is the responsibility of all leaders to stop the bloodshed in Iraq and to protect their citizens, said Nesirky.
According to the UN spokesperson, Kobler reiterated that it is the Iraqi politicians' responsibility to act immediately and to engage in dialogue to resolve the political impasse and put an end to this situation.
Nesirky also quoted the special envoy as saying that "the country will slide backwards if they do not take action."
According to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, the death toll among Iraqis from violence in April hit its highest level since 2008, with 712 people killed across the country. Endi
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