Winks Blog

31 Killed Dozens Injured

Good Afternoon,

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A series of explosions left at least 31 people dead and wounded dozens Sunday as Iraq's relentless violence remained unabated despite an appeal from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for an end to sectarian fighting.

On Sunday, a bomb planted in a small bus detonated outside the Palestine hotel in downtown Baghdad, killing at least nine people and injuring 16, police and witnesses said. Another car bomb exploded in the parking lot of a government-run newspaper in the capital, killing at least three people and injuring at least 29.

A bomb exploded in the town of al-Khalis, on the outskirts of Baqouba just north of Baghdad, killing six and wounding more than a dozen, provincial police said.

And at least nine people were killed and 22 injured on Sunday in two back-to-back suicide car bombings in the northern city of Kirkuk. Four more people were killed in a motorcycle bomb in the south.

The first car bomber smashed into a checkpoint outside the house of Peyrut Talabani, a cousin of President Jalal Talabani, at about 7.30 p.m., said Col. Sarhat Qader of the Kirkuk police department.

Ten minutes later, another car bomb exploded about a half-mile away outside the home of the commander of a local police station, Sarhat said.

In Basra, a motorcycle bomb exploded in an open-air night market, killing four people and wounding 15, the governor's office said.

Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and the southern oil center, is 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.

In the Palestine attack in the capital, the bomb planted in a small bus detonated shortly before noon near the hotel's pedestrian entry point. AP Television News showed the white vehicle stopping and detonating in front of the hotel's concrete blast walls. Bodies were strewn on the road around the blast site. It was not clear how the bomb was detonated.

The attacks occurred a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appealed to Iraqis to support his national reconciliation plan to end sectarian fighting between Shiites and Sunnis, and terrorism by Sunni Arab insurgents.

Al-Maliki said Sunday that violence was decreasing in his country, despite daily reports of bloodshed and fighting. He insisted that his government was making progress in efforts to combat sectarian clashes between Shiites and Sunnis, and terrorism by Sunni Arab insurgents.

"The violence is not increasing. We're not in a civil war. Iraq will never be in a civil war," he said through an interpreter on CNN's Late Edition. "The violence is in decrease and our security ability is increasing."

The almost daily violence has left about 10,000 people dead since May, when al-Maliki's government took office.

The attack against the al-Sabah newspaper in a largely Sunni Arab neighborhood set at least 25 cars on fire and badly damaged the newspaper building.

The bombings _ which came a day after 26 people were killed in dozens of attacks _ showed that national reconciliation is a distant goal even though it was endorsed by hundreds of tribal chiefs at a conference on Saturday.

After the conference, the tribal chiefs signed a "pact of honor" to support al-Maliki's plan.

Tribal ties have considerable influence in Iraqi society, especially among rural people. But like all other institutions in Iraq, tribal affiliations are sometimes tenuous.

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 12:08 PM