Attacks kill 29 people in Iraq
3/25/2014BAGHDAD — A wave of attacks across Iraq today killed at least 29 people, mostly members of the security forces, while a Sunni lawmaker escaped an assassination attempt, officials said.
Police officials say the deadliest of today’s attacks took place at night when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden tanker into a security checkpoint in the northeast suburbs of Baghdad, killing six soldiers and three civilians. The officials added that 21 people were wounded in the attack.
Hours earlier, police said gunmen attacked an army post in Tarmiyah town just north of Baghdad, killing eight soldiers and wounding 13.
Later on, a roadside bomb hit the convoy of Sunni lawmaker Salim al-Jubouri in the Ghalibiya district of Baghdad. Two bodyguards were killed and seven others were wounded in the attack, according to the police.
Also, a car bomb blast in a commercial street in western Baghdad killed four people and wounded 12 others. Police said a bomb blast near a market in Baghdad’s southern suburbs of al-Rahseed killed one person and wounded five others.
In northern city of Mosul, gunmen sprayed an army checkpoint with bullets, killing five soldiers.
Hospital medics confirmed the casualties for all attacks. All officers spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaida breakaway group that frequently uses car bombs and suicide attacks to target public areas and members of security forces in their bid to undermine confidence in the government.
Violence has escalated in Iraq over the past year. Last year, the country saw the highest death toll since the worst of the country’s sectarian bloodletting began to subside in 2007, according to United Nations figures. The U.N. said violence killed 8,868 last year in Iraq.