The Common Ills: Iraq slammed with violence

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Iraq slammed with violence

Iraq is yet again slammed with violence today.

National Iraqi News Agency reports that there was an attempt to storm the Hawija Council building -- guns went off, suicide bombers, mortars. The attack left at least 14 people dead and twenty-two more injured. Yaseen al-Sabaw tells Reuters, "I was at the Hawija local council building when suddenly two blasts shook the ground. I ran out of the building and was shocked to see human flesh and body parts spread around the entrance." Bi Mingxin (Xinhua) notes, "The attacks occurred at noon in Hawijah, some 60 km west of the capital city of Kirkuk, when insurgents blew up a car bomb near a police station while two suicide car bombers struck the entrance of the city council building and another police station, local police source said told Xinhua on condition of anonymity." On Iraq's increasing violence, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) offers, "The tensions began escalating after an April incident in Hawija. That's when Iraqi security forces raided a site used by Sunni protesters to demonstrate against the Shiite-led government."

Tawfeeq is referring to the April 23rd massacre of a sit-in in Hawija resulted from Nouri's federal forces storming in. Alsumaria noted Kirkuk's Department of Health (Hawija is in Kirkuk) announced 50 activists have died and 110 were injured in the assault. AFP reported the death toll eventually (as some wounded died) rose to 53 dead. UNICEF noted that the dead included 8 children (twelve more were injured).

The attack in Hawija wasn't the only violence today. Xinhua reports, "A group of unidentified gunmen stormed a house in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad and shot dead six people from one family, including three children, an Interior Ministry source said Wednesday." NINA adds a Tikrit roadside bombing claimed the life of 1 Iraqi soldier and left four more injured, 2 farmers were shot dead in Muqdadiya, a Mousl roadside bombing claimed the lives of 3 police officers (two more were left injured), 2 Shabaks were shot dead in Mosul, a Rutba roadside bombing left 2 people dead and a third injured, and a Ramadi sticky bombing claimed the life of "Ammar Theyabi, one of the organizers of the Anbar protests."

In police news, NINA notes that suspects are said to have been apprehended in Saturday's bombing of the funeral in Sadr City and that some residents took to government buildings with stones and bullets today demanding the suspects be handed over to them. All Iraq News quotes a security source who states, ""Some protesters attacked some governmental institutions including the Local Council of Mudhafar square on the background of the bombing that took place in Sadr city and targeted a solace. The protesters called to close the governmental institutions in Sadr city." NINA notes that police raided the University of Tikrit's College of Education "and detained the professor of the science of Quran [. . .] Dr. Salah Yasser al-Obeidi."

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