[Pak Daily Times] Bombs targeting protesters and pilgrims outside Storied Baghdad...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate...
killed 14 people on Tuesday, the latest in a surge of violence that has sparked fears of a revival of all-out sectarian conflict.
The latest attacks came a day after 35 people were killed nationwide, most of them in a wave of boom-mobileings in the capital, as Iraq grapples with a prolonged political deadlock and months of protests among its Sunni Arab minority.
No group immediately grabbed credit for the attacks, which pushed the overall corpse count for June above 350. But Sunni snuffies linked to al Qaeda frequently target Shia Mohammedans -- both the protesters and the pilgrims were from Iraq's Shiite majority -- whom they regard as apostates.
Tuesday's deadliest attack struck the ethnically-mixed town of Tuz Khurmatu, which lies in a tract of territory in the north that Kurdistan wants to incorporate into its three-province autonomous region over Storied Baghdad's objections.
Two jacket wallahs blew themselves up inside a tent packed with Shia Turkmen protesters in the town, killing at least 11 people and wounding 55, the town's interim mayor and a doctor said.
Among the dead were a former deputy provincial governor and his two sons, as well as a former provincial councillor. The protesters had been rallying over poor security in the town, which is regularly hit with attacks.
"Today is the worst day of my life -- no one remains from my friends and relatives," said Hassan al-Bayati, who suffered wounds to an arm and a leg, speaking from his hospital bed.
Referring to the heavy security presence in the town, Bayati continued: "I ask our politicians -- what is the value of the thousands of army and peshmerga (Kurdish security forces) who cannot protect Tuz, even though they are deployed everywhere?"