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.

 

62 Iraqis Killed, 139 Injured in a Wave of Attacks Across Iraq

July 11, 2013

 

Site of a car bomb in Tuz Khurmatu, Iraq, July 11, 2011, xin

At least 62 killed, 139 wounded in wave of attacks across Iraq

BAGHDAD, July 11, 2013 (Xinhua) --

At least 62 people were killed and 139 others wounded in a wave of violent attacks across Iraq on Thursday, police sources said.

Unidentified gunmen opened fire on Iraqi security forces guarding oil facilities on the road between Haditha and Baiji in northern Iraq, killing 11 soldiers, a police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

A car bombing and subsequently a suicide bomber attacked a funeral in Muqdadiya, some 90 km northeast of Baghdad, killing 10 people and injuring 32 others, the source said.

Also, at least 10 people were killed and 18 others wounded in two car bomb attacks near a coffee shop in Yathrib, some 85 km north of Baghdad, another police source told Xinhua.

In Tikrik, some 140 km northwest of Baghdad, three soldiers were killed and 10 others wounded, including an officer, when a car bomb struck a military convoy.

Also in the day, a series of other violent attacks, mainly targeting the police forces in Iraq, killed 28 people and wounded some 79 others in the western province of Anbar and northern provinces of Salah ad-Din, Kirkuk and Nineveh, the police said.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the al-Qaida front in Iraq, in most cases, is responsible for such violent acts in the country.

High-profile bomb attacks are still common in Iraq despite the dramatic decrease since their peak in 2006 and 2007, when the country was engulfed in sectarian killings.

Editor: Chen Zhi

20 killed in attacks across Iraq

BAGHDAD, July 11, 2013 (Xinhua) --

A series of bomb attacks, including suicide bombings, mainly targeting the police forces in Iraq on Thursday, killed 20 people and wounded some 69, the police said.

In Iraq's western province of Anbar, three policemen were killed and seven injured in a triple suicide bomb attacks on a police station in central the provincial capital city of Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, a provincial police source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The attacks began when two suicide bombers blew up their explosive vests at the checkpoint of the entrance of a police station, paving the way for a third suicide bomber to drive an explosive-laden car near the police building and blew it up, the source said.

The blasts destroyed part of the police station and set on fire several police and civilian vehicles at the scene, the source added.

In a separate incident, a suicide bomber rammed his explosive- laden car into a police checkpoint at al-Jazira area in northern Ramadi, killing three policemen and wounding six others, the source said.

In the afternoon, insurgents carried out another coordinated attack on a compound of a police headquarters in the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, killing at least six policemen and wounding 13 others and a civilian.

Also, six mortar rounds landed on the compound, while some 40 gunmen apparently trying to take control of the police headquarters fought fierce clashes with the guarding policemen, the source said.

There is no immediate report about casualties among the gunmen, but the police believe that some of the attackers were killed and wounded as they found some blood stains in the area surrounding the compound, the source added.

Meanwhile, near the Syrian border, a policeman was killed and two wounded when two roadside bombs struck their patrol at the entrance of the city of al-Qaim, about 330 km west of Baghdad, a source from Anbar's provincial police said.

Late on Wednesday night, a suicide bomber blew up a car packed with explosives into a police convoy on the highway near the city of Rutba, some 375 km west of Baghdad, killing a police officer and wounding two policemen, the source said.

Insurgent attacks are still common in the volatile Sunni Arab area in western Baghdad that stretches through Anbar province to Iraq's western border with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

In northern central Iraq, five people were killed and 29 wounded in the morning when a booby-trapped truck ripped through a Shiite Turkoman neighborhood of Aq-Sou in the city of Tuz-Khurmato, about 200 km north of Baghdad, a local police source anonymously told Xinhua.

The huge blast also left eight houses badly damaged and set fire to at least four nearby vehicles, the source said.

The Shiite Turkomans previously rallied on a main road outside Tuz-Khurmato and held a sit-in protesting against the repeated attacks by al-Qaida militants against their minority in the city, which is part of the disputed areas claimed by the Kurds, Arabs and Turkomans.

The protesters demanded the government to help forming a special force from their sons in Tuz-Khurmato to protect their community from the attacks which they believe are aimed at displacing them from their homes.

Elsewhere, two car bombs ripped through the city of al-Debis in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, wounding seven people.

In Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad, a civilian was killed by gunmen in a busy area in a parking lot in northern the city, a local police source said.

Also in the day, a car bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol on a highway in west of the city of Samarra, some 110 km north of Baghdad, damaging a military vehicle and wounding two soldiers aboard, the police said.

Editor: yan