Spate of attacks hits Iraqi cities, leaves dozens dead

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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Two suicide bombers on Thursday killed at least 34 people and injured 70 in an attack on the home of an anti-terrorism officer in northern Iraq, while three roadside bombs in Baghdad killed seven others, authorities said.

The attacks came one day after car bombs in two Shiite villages near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killed 16 civilians and injured more than two dozen, in a surge of violence in Iraq's troubled north following the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from cities to bases outside urban centers at the end of June. The suicide bombers targeted the home of a police sergeant and his brother, who also worked for the security forces, in the northern town of Tal Afar, provincial police chief General Khaled Hamdani told Agence France-Presse.

Tal Afar is a mostly Turkmen town between Mosul and the Syrian border and has often been the target of violence. In March 2007, it was hit by one of the deadliest single attacks in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 when a suicide truck bomb killed more than 150 people.

Iraq is trying to build on security gains made in the past two years, though political reconciliation among the country's factions remains a troubled process and there is concern that insurgent attacks could trigger a slide back into sectarian violence.
 
Maj. Gen. Khalid al-Hamadani, the police chief of the northern Ninevah province, said the first bomber, wearing a police uniform and carrying a radio and a pistol, knocked on the door of a police officer who works as an investigator in the anti-terrorism police department in Tal Afar city.

When the officer opened the door around 6:30 a.m., the bomber detonated his explosive belt, killing the officer, his wife and son, al-Hamadani said. As people gathered near the scene, another suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt.

It was the worst single incident in the conflict-hit country since American forces withdrew from Iraq's urban centers on June 30 under a landmark accord between Baghdad and Washington. Police and hospital sources said the casualties in Tal Afar included women and children. The scene of the blast was completely sealed off by police.

In further attacks on Thursday, two roadside bombs exploded near an outdoor market in the Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad, killing six and injuring 31, said Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Mousawi, spokesman for the city's operations command center. Explosives experts defused a third bomb in the area.

Hassan Abdullah told the Associated Press that he heard the first blast and went to see what was happening when a second bomb hidden in trash about 100 meters away exploded. He said he fell to the ground and was taken to a hospital with hand and leg injuries.

In the Karrada district of central Baghdad, one civilian was killed and five were injured in a roadside bomb attack on the convoy of Central Bank Gov. Sinan al-Shibibi, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Three of the injured were guards of the governor, who himself was unharmed.

The bomb hit a vehicle carrying guards at the rear of the convoy as well as a nearby civilian car. Also in Baghdad, a bomb concealed in a bicycle parked at a market in the Shiite-dominated area of Shurta al-Rabeaa exploded, wounding two and damaging three shops. Three other people were wounded, when a bomb exploded in a minibus in Baghdad.

The spate of bombings comes after U.S. troops pulled back from urban centers under an agreement that paves the way for a complete American military withdrawal by the end of 2011. The four weeks leading up to the U.S. pullback witnessed the highest death toll in the country in 11 months, according to official figures.

A total of 437 people were killed in June, figures compiled by government ministries show - the highest toll since July 2008. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned last month that insurgents were likely to step up attacks in a bid to undermine confidence in Iraqi security forces.