Suicide attack in Baghdad cafe kills 12 people.

Suicide attack in Baghdad cafe kills 12 people.

BAGHDAD | 21 March 2014 : : A suicide bomber struck inside a Baghdad cafe overnight where customers were watching a football game on TV, killing at least 12 people and wounding 38, Iraqi officials said Thursday.

The attack in the western Washash neighborhood took place late on Wednesday night, two police officers said. The bomber had mingled with the cafe crowd and set off his explosives-laden belt as they watched the game.

A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.

Iraq has been struck by a surge in violence unseen since 2007, relentless attacks that have become the Shiite-led government's most serious challenge.

Violence has spiked since last April, when security forces cracked down on a Sunni protest camp north of Baghdad in clashes that left 45 dead.

Scores of people have been killed in the Iraqi capital, in recent attacks that have targeted busy areas, restaurants and other public places.

On Tuesday, a series of bombings struck both commercial streets and security forces in Baghdad and its surroundings, killing 15 people.

No one has claimed responsibility for the latest attacks, but they bear the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda breakaway group that frequently uses car bombs and suicide attacks to target public areas such as cafes, restaurants, mosques and markets to undermine the government's efforts to maintain security in the country.

According to the UN 8,868 people were killed in Iraq last year the country's highest death toll since a peak of sectarian bloodletting in 2007. ( Courtesy : Dawn )

                 

100 die as Iraq forces battle Al Qaeda.

Over 100 die as Iraq forces battle Al Qaeda.

Gunmen walk in the streets of the city of Falluja, 50 km
 (31 miles) west of Baghdad January 3, 2014. Sunni
Muslim tribesmen backed by Iraqi troops fought al
 Qaeda-linked militants for control of Iraq's western
 province of Anbar on Friday. — Photo by Reuters

RAMADI | AFP | Iraq | 05 Jan 2014 :: More than 100 people were killed on Friday as Iraqi police and tribesmen battled Al Qaeda-linked militants who took over parts of two Anbar provincial cities, announcing one an Islamic state.

Parts of Ramadi and Fallujah, west of Baghdad, have been held by militants for days, harkening back to the years after the 2003 US-led invasion when both cities were insurgent strongholds.

Fighting began in the Ramadi area on Monday, when security forces removed the main anti-government protest camp set up after demonstrations broke out in late 2012 against what Sunni Arabs say is the targeting of their community.

Anger at the government among the Sunni minority is seen as one of the main drivers of the worst violence to hit Iraq in five years.

Police and tribesmen fought in Ramadi and Fallujah on Friday against militants from Al Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which operates in Iraq and Syria, security officials said.

At least 32 civilians and 71 ISIL fighters died in the clashes, the officials said, adding that they did not know how many police and tribesmen were killed.

Fallujah was the target of two assaults after the 2003 US-led invasion, in which American forces saw some of their heaviest fighting since the Vietnam War.( Courtesy : Dawn )

Iraq bombing kills eight: officials.

Iraq bombing kills eight: officials.

Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008,
 when the country was just emerging from a brutal
sectarian conflict. (Reuters)

09 Oct 2013 :: A roadside bomb exploded near a truck carrying workers in Iraq on Wednesday, killing eight people, a police officer and a hospital employee said.

The blast south of Baghdad also wounded seven, they said.

Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal sectarian conflict.

This year's surge in violence has raised fears of a relapse into the kind of intense Sunni-Shiite bloodshed that peaked in 2006-2007 and killed tens of thousands of people.

Diplomats and analysts say the Shiite-led government's failure to address the grievances of the Sunni Arab minority - which complains of political exclusion and abuses by security forces - has driven the rise in unrest.

With the latest violence, more than 200 people have been killed so far this month, and over 4,900 since the beginning of the year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.(Courtesy:The Indian Express)

Iraqi mosque bombing during prayers kills 30.

Iraqi mosque bombing during prayers kills 30.

A boy inspects the site of a double bomb attack on a Shia mosque
 in Kasra neighbourhood in northern Baghdad on Thursday. A day
 later, an attack on another mosque during prayers killed at least
28 people, in Iraq's deadliest bout of violence in half a decade.
(Khalid Mohammed/Associated Press)

CBC News | 14 Sep 2013 :: A bomb hidden inside an air conditioner exploded Friday at a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad, the deadliest in a series of attacks in Iraq that killed 33 people, officials said.

The deadliest of Friday's attacks took place when a bomb exploded inside a Sunni mosque that was full of worshippers in the village of Umm al-Adham on the outskirts of Baqouba, a former militant stronghold 60 kilometres northeast of Baghdad, police officials said.

Police said the blast killed 30 people and wounded at least 45. Two security officials said the bomb was hidden inside a window air conditioner.

Iraq is weathering its deadliest bout of violence in half a decade, raising fears the country is returning to the widespread killing that pushed it to the brink of civil war following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

In the northern city of Mosul, police said a roadside bomb killed two soldiers and wounded two others. Also, authorities said gunmen shot and killed Khalaf Hameed, a local municipal official in Shora district, just south of Mosul.

Officials in nearby hospitals confirmed the casualty figures for all the attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The months-long surge of bloodshed is taking place against the backdrop of rising tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shia Muslims. The tensions are being inflamed in part by the sectarian divisions reflected in the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

Members of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority have been protesting against the Shia-led government since December, angered over what they see as second-class treatment of their sect and what they see as unfair application of tough anti-terrorism measures. Attacks surged after a deadly crackdown on a Sunni protest camp by security forces in April.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Friday's attacks.(Courtesy:CBC News)

Iraqi Shia family targeted in deadly attack.

Iraqi Shia family targeted in deadly attack.

BBC News | 04 Sep 2013 :: An attack on a Shia Muslim family living near Baghdad has left at least 16 people dead, Iraqi officials say.

Six children and five women were among those killed when the neighbouring homes of two brothers in the town of Latifiya, 40km (25 miles) south of the capital, were targeted overnight.

A survivor said the gunmen shot anyone they saw before blowing up the houses.

Sectarian violence has surged across Iraq in recent months, reaching its highest level since 2008.

More than 800 people were killed in August alone, with Baghdad province worst affected.

Latifiya is in a religiously-mixed region that came to be known as the "Triangle of Death" at the peak of Iraq's insurgency in 2006 and 2007.

No group said it was behind the latest attack, but Sunni militants linked to al-Qaeda frequently target the country's Shia majority.

"Gunmen broke into our house overnight and shot my father four times in the head, they killed my two brothers, they killed my cousin, they were shooting everyone they saw, I escaped from the back door," one of the survivors, Haneen Mudhhir, told Reuters news agency from hospital.(Courtesy:BBC News)

Spate of Iraq attacks kills 13.

Spate of Iraq attacks kills 13.

BAGHDAD | AFP | 03 Sep 2013 ::  Attacks in Baghdad and mostly Sunni areas of Iraq killed 13 people Monday, including eight in a coordinated attack on the home of an anti-Qaeda militia chief, officials said.

The Turkish consul to the northern city of Mosul and a top criminal judge in executed dictator Saddam Hussein's home town were also caught in bomb attacks.

The violence was the latest in a surge of unrest that has killed more than 3,800 people since the start of the year and sparked widespread concern that Iraq is slipping back towards the all-out bloodshed which plagued it in 2006 and 2007.

Authorities have pushed a massive security campaign targeting militants, but analysts and diplomats have cautioned that the government must also address the root causes of the violence.

Monday's deadliest attack was against the west Baghdad home of Wissam al-Hardan, who was appointed earlier this year by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to lead the Sahwa, a collection of Sunni tribal militias.

Officials said two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside Hardan's home at around 3:00 pm (1200 GMT), followed by a car bomb that went off as emergency responders arrived at the scene.

In all, eight people were killed and 14 were wounded, including Hardan himself.

The militia chief was taken to a hospital inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the US and British embassies and parliament.

From late 2006 onwards, Sunni tribal militias turned against their co-religionists in Al-Qaeda and sided with the US military, helping to turn the tide of Iraq's bloody insurgency.

As a result, however, Sunni militants view them as traitors and frequently target them in attacks.(Courtesy:The Nation)

Bombs, shootings kill at least 47 across Iraq, say police.

Bombs, shootings kill at least 47 across Iraq, say police.

Another police officer said a bomb exploded near
a car ferrying a judge in the northern town of Balad,
killing three nurses walking nearby. The judge, his
brother and the driver were wounded. — Photo by AP

BAGHDAD | REUTERS | 26 Aug 2013 ::  Car bombs, roadside bombs and shootings killed at least 47 people in Iraq on Sunday, police and medical sources said, as tensions intensify between Sunni and Shia Muslims across the Middle East.

Sunni Muslim insurgents and the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq have significantly increased their attacks this year.

More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in July, the highest monthly death toll since 2008, according to the United Nations.

More than two years of civil war in neighbouring Syria have aggravated deep-rooted sectarian divisions and shaken Iraq's fragile coalition of Shia, Kurdish and Sunni factions.

The renewed violence, eighteen months after the last US troops withdrew from Iraq, has sparked fears of a return to the scale sectarian slaughter in 2006 and 2007.

Iraqis have suffered extreme violence for years, but since the start of 2013 the intensity of attacks on civilians has dramatically increased.

Bomb attacks have increasingly targeted cafes and other places where families gather, as well as the usual targets of military facilities and checkpoints.

The biggest of Sunday's attacks took place in central Baquba, 65 km northeast of Baghdad when a car bomb blew up near a housing complex, killing at least 11 people and wounding 34, police said.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Iraq: Car Bombings 'Kill 50' In Baghdad.

Baghdad | 10 Aug 2013 ::

Nine separate explosions targeted markets and busy shopping streets and took place as residents celebrated the Eid holiday.

One of the bombings was near an outdoor market in the southeastern suburbs of the capital shortly before sunset, killing seven people and wounding 20.

Outside Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a car on a busy street in the town of Tuz Khurmato, 105 miles north of the capital, killing at least 10 people and wounding 45, medical and police sources said.

Tuz Khurmato is located in a particularly violent region over which both the central government and autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan claim jurisdiction.

Police believe the bomber was trying to reach the local headquarters of a Kurdish political party, but was unable to reach the building because of increased security in the area, a police source said.

There has been a surge in violence in Iraq since the start of the year.

More than 1,000 people were killed in July, the highest monthly death toll since 2008 amid worries of a return to the all-out sectarian war that blighted Iraq years ago.

Sunni Islamist militants have been regaining momentum in their insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government.

And they have been emboldened by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, which has stoked sectarian tensions across the Middle East.(Courtesy:X FM London)