 Iraq was struck by a series of boom bitches female suicide bombings and ethnic violence that shook the country and left the volatile northern city of Kirkuk reeling amid fears of further bloodshed between the Kurds who dominate the city and its large population of Turkmen.
All told, at least 61 people were killed and 238 wounded throughout the country on Monday, nearly all of them Kurdish political protesters in Kirkuk and Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad, making for one of the bloodiest days of the year. But the numbers understated how much the violence in Kirkuk unnerved government and security officials, and even caused Turkmen leaders to call for protection from United Nations security forces.
| The attacks in Baghdad, in which three women used suicide vests and a bomb in a bag to unleash strikes just minutes apart, were a blow to the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, whose government is has made protecting the Shiite pilgrims a point of honor. |
The attacks in Baghdad, in which three women used suicide vests and a bomb in a bag to unleash strikes just minutes apart, were a blow to the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, whose government is has made protecting the Shiite pilgrims a point of honor, deploying thousands of Iraqi troops around the city, setting up checkpoints and closing roads. Mr. Maliki is negotiating a new security agreement with the United States, and a central point is the ability of Iraqi forces to take over security. |