Through yesterday, Iraq Body Count counts
448 violent deaths so far this month.
NINA notes a
Sharqat bombing claimed the life of 1 Iraqi soldier and left three more injured, a
Baquba boming left two people injured, a
Mosul bombing left 3 police dead and two civilians injured, and a
Mosul sticky bombing left a police captain and his son injured.
All Iraq News adds an
armed Mosul attack left two police injured, an
armed attack in Tikrit left 5 police dead, and a
Tikrit bombing claimed 3 lives. Alsumaria reports a
Baghdad bombing claimed 7 lives (one officer and six soldiers) and
a truck bomb at an Umm Qasr port left two people injured.
AFP notes, "In another attack north of the capital, gunmen killed three soldiers in the restive Muqdadiyah area of Diyala province." That's 22 reported dead and thirteen injured. That's 470 when you add it to IBC's total for the month so far.
Tim Arango (New York Times) has an article that captures the violence including the heartbreak of loss. We'll dig further in for this:
Iraqis long ago lost confidence in the ability
of their security forces, trained by the Americans at a cost of
billions of dollars, to protect them.
Now they feel increasingly mocked by their leaders, whose latest pronouncements of security successes are met with revulsion.
A
few hours before the attacks on Saturday evening, Prime Minister Nuri
Kamal al-Maliki sent a text message to every citizen with a mobile
phone, wishing all a happy Id al-Fitr and “security, stability and
prosperity.”
Use the link for the article in full. If you don't subscribe to the New York Times and have already used your free articles,
click here to read Arango at a non-Times newspaper.
