IRAQ: Suicide bombers attack Iraqis protesting lack of security protection, killing eight

Record ID: 864083

  • Title: IRAQ: Suicide bombers attack Iraqis protesting lack of security protection, killing eight
  • Date: 25th June 2013
  • Summary: BLOODSTAINS AND SHOE ON GROUND
  • Embargoed: 10th July 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • City:
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAES10Z2YFIUSV7HEVWX24A7RGF
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Two suicide bombers killed at least eight Iraqi Turkmen on Tuesday (June 25) when they blew themselves up at a protest by members of the ethnic minority group, police said.
    The attackers walked into a tented encampment on the Baghdad-Kirkuk highway, near the town of Tuz Khurmato, 170 km (105 miles) north of the Iraqi capital, where Turkmen were protesting against what they saw as government failure to protect them.
    Turkmen TV broadcast pictures of the confusion of the immediate aftermath as soldiers fired into the billowing smoke from the blast as wounded people caught up in the bombing lay on the ground.
    Tuz Khurmato is a disputed area with a mixed population of ethnic Kurds, Arab Sunnis and Shi'ite Turkmen.
    The latter have recently been targeted in a series of attacks on their gatherings of Turkmen, their headquarters and on prominent members.
    The second blast happened as protesters tried to take the wounded to hospital.
    Militants have struck with increasing regularity in Iraq since the start of the year. More than 1,000 people were killed in May alone, making it the deadliest month since sectarian violence last peaked in 2006-07.
    Insurgents, including al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, have been recruiting members from the country's minority Sunnis, who feel sidelined since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein and empowered majority Shi'ites.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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