IRAQ: Family members mourn the loss of their loved ones killed in Sunday's suicide bombing attack in a predominantly Sunni district of Baghdad

Record ID: 357702

  • Title: IRAQ: Family members mourn the loss of their loved ones killed in Sunday's suicide bombing attack in a predominantly Sunni district of Baghdad
  • Date: 23rd September 2013
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (ARABIC) EYEWITNESS, SAAIED, SAYING: "This is a calamity that hurts a number of innocent people. At least seven or eight people were killed in the attack. It is a funeral tent where a bomb was placed and killed people. This is a calamity that can not be retold, neither Allah nor prophets, nor people can accept of this." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CONSOLING MAN WHO LOST
  • Embargoed: 8th October 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1LV924BUYSOCCZKTW14B4HORY
  • Story Text: A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a tent filled with mourners in a predominantly Sunni district of Baghdad on Sunday (September 22), killing at least 16 people, police and medical sources said.
    35 others were wounded in the attack in Doura, which came a day after a triple bombing at a funeral in Baghdad's Shi'ite stronghold of Sadr City killed 85 people.
    On Monday (September 23) family of victims killed in the attack gathered at the blast site to survey the damage and mourn their losses.
    Iraq's delicate sectarian balance has been strained to near breaking point by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, where mainly Sunni Muslim rebels are fighting to overthrow a leader backed by Shi'ite Iran.
    Both Sunnis and Shi'ites have crossed into Syria from Iraq to fight on opposite sides of the conflict.
    Al Qaeda's Iraqi and Syrian branches merged this year to form the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on both sides of the border.
    Iraq has also witnessed several incidents in recent weeks suggesting that Shi'ite militias, which have so far largely refrained from retaliating for attacks by Sunni insurgents, may once again be resorting to violence.
    Around 800 Iraqis were killed in acts of violence in August, according to the United Nations.
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