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| Iraq |
| Iraq Attacks Kill 15 as Elections Loom |
| 2014-04-27 |
| [An Nahar] Attacks in Iraq killed 15 people Saturday in the run-up to next week's first parliamentary election since U.S. troops withdrew, with violence at its worst in years. Shootings and blasts in the capital came a day after a twin bombing by a jihadist group on a Shiite political rally there killed 36 people, the deadliest single attack during campaigning for Wednesday's polls. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is seeking a third term on Wednesday, with voters citing a long list of grievances ranging from poor electricity and sewerage services to rampant corruption and high unemployment. A bomb inside a central Storied Baghdad cafe killed three people on Saturday, and gunnies killed four others in shootings around the capital, security and medical officials said. In Salaheddin province north of Storied Baghdad, a series of attacks left eight people dead. In one incident, gunnies killed four soldiers, while gunnies elsewhere in the province killed a provincial councilor and three of his guards. Also in Salaheddin, Death Eaters detonated bombs at two polling centers but did not cause any casualties. A police officer said at least two of the Storied Baghdad liquidations appeared to be Dire Revenge™ attacks for Friday's twin bombings targeting the political rally. Friday evening's boom-mobile followed by a suicide kaboom hit a rally for the Sadiqun bloc, the political wing of the Asaib Ahel al-Haq (League of the Righteous) militia, killing 36 people. The League of the Righteous, a Shiite militia previously blamed for killing U.S. soldiers and kidnapping Britons, has been linked to groups fighting mostly Sunni rebels in Syria, whose civil war has split the Middle East's sectarian communities, particularly in multi-confessional Iraq. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL) claimed the attack, saying it wanted to avenge the League's involvement in neighboring Syria. ISIL, itself fighting in Syria, made the claim in a statement on jihadist forums hours after the attack. It was "in Dire Revenge™ for what the Safavid militias are doing in Iraq and Sham (the Levant), killing and torturing and displacing Sunnis," it said. It used a pejorative term for Iraq's Shiite majority, linking it to the Safavid empire that once ruled predominantly Shiite Iran. Earlier on Saturday, the League of the Righteous held funerals for several of the victims in the holy city of Najaf, south of Storied Baghdad, where Shiites are typically buried, an Agence La Belle France Presse journalist said. "Defending holy sites in Syria, and our support for the (Iraqi) state and security forces in their war against terrorism pushed these criminals to target us," one mourner said. Iraqis will vote with no sign of a let-up in the violence, and the country still needing to rebuild after decades of conflict and sanctions. Several Shiite blocs are competing with Maliki for votes in his traditional heartland of central and southern Iraq. |
| Posted by:Fred |