IRAQ: Bombs hit cities across Iraq, at least 23 killed

Record ID: 353824

  • Title: IRAQ: Bombs hit cities across Iraq, at least 23 killed
  • Date: 15th April 2013
  • Summary: TUZ KHURMATO, NORTH IRAQ (APRIL 15, 2013) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS): PEOPLE STANDING AMIDST RUBBLE OF DAMAGED HOUSES DAMAGED HOUSES/ RUBBLE CRATER FILLED BY WATER ZOOM OUT TO PEOPLE STANDING AMIDST DAMAGED HOUSES AND RUBBLE OF BRICKS COVERING AREA AMBULANCE ARRIVING AT HOSPITAL CROWD OF PEOPLE AROUND VEHICLE AS WOUNDED MAN BEING LOADED ONTO WOUNDED MAN WITH BANDAGED FA
  • Embargoed: 30th April 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1EQRTWEJWL1Q6E50BPFBT6QM8
  • Story Text: Car bombs and blasts in cities across Iraq, including two explosions at a checkpoint outside Baghdad's international airport, killed at least 23 people on Monday (April 15) days before provincial elections.
    No one claimed responsibility for the attacks in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmato and other towns to the north to south, but al Qaeda's local wing is waging a campaign against Shi'ites and the government to stoke sectarian confrontation.
    Iraqis will vote on Saturday for members of provincial councils in a ballot that is seen as a test of political stability since the last U.S. troops withdrew in December 2011.
    The ballot for nearly 450 provincial council seats will also be an important measure of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's political muscle against his Sunni and Shi'ite rivals before a parliamentary election in 2014.
    A dozen candidates have already been killed so far in campaigning, including two moderate Sunni politicians over the weekend.
    Monday's attacks were mostly car bombs, including two blasts that killed two passengers at an outer checkpoint as they were on their way into the Baghdad airport site. Attacks on the heavily guarded airport and the fortified International Zone housing many embassies are rare.
    The most deadly attack was in Tuz Khurmato, 170 km (105 miles) north of Baghdad, where four bombs targeting police patrols killed five people and wounded 67, officials said.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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