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| Iraq |
| 17 dead in Iraqi violence |
| 2005-12-19 |
| At least 17 Iraqis were killed as violence flared on Sunday after Sunni Arab and Shiite politicians appealed for unity and warned against sectarian divisions following a landmark election. Eleven security force personnel were among those shot dead or blown up in a string of attacks in or north of the capital since late Saturday. In Kirkuk, gunmen killed Dhiab Hamad al-Hamdani and his son Munah, the uncle and nephew of a leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party. And Ali Karim al-Assadi, a Shia member of the Badr Organisation, the former military wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), was shot dead in Baghdad, a security source said. A woman was killed and 15 people wounded in a bombing outside a mosque in the capital, the first attack targeting the majority community since the election. Elsewhere in Baghdad, a suicide bomber in a minibus blew himself up wounding one policeman, while 11 police offiers were wounded in a shootout with insurgents in the west of the capital, security sources said. After several days of relative calm amid a massive security clampdown that was lifted on Sunday, the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda has warned minority Sunni Arabs against being lulled into a false sense of security by the polls. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |