Many dead in attacks on Iraqi security forces

Many dead in attacks on Iraqi security forces


A group of police recruits were targeted at a compound several kilometres outside Kirkuk
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Struggle for Iraq

• Exploiting fragility
  
• Iraq's dilemma
  
• Message of hope
  
• Divisions laid bare
  

Dozens of people have been killed in a wave of at least 11 attacks in Iraq, some targeting the security forces.

In the deadliest single incident, 11 soldiers died in a shooting and bombing attack on an army base near Baghdad.

Two car bombs killed a total of at least 14 people and wounded than 60 near the south-eastern city of Amara, according to local officials.

Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaeda have been blamed for much of the recent violence in Iraq.

The army base, in the Balad district north of Baghdad, was initially attacked by armed insurgents, who then detonated a number of improvised explosive devices at the base.

A bomb near the northern city of Kirkuk killed seven police who were applying for jobs with the state-run Northern Oil Company, according to police spokesmen.

Reports suggested there had been a total of at least 11 attacks across the country, killing at least 45 people and injuring scores more.

In another of the incidents, a bomb also exploded near the French consulate in the city of Nasiriya to the south of Baghdad, with two casualties reported.

The latest violence comes only days after eight people were killed on attacks on Shia Muslim places of worship in Kirkuk.

Although violence has decreased since its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks have escalated again after the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in December 2011 and amid increasing political and sectarian tensions.

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The Middle East crisis is deepening and the death toll, homeless refugees and Cities demolished really is worrying.

75 dead

Badboy wrote:75 dead

It really is dreadful and at the end of the day you have to wonder whether these Countries were better off with Dictators ! Did the West intervention in Iraq and Libya acheive anything........NO.

9 September 2012 Last updated at 22:04
Iraq VP Tariq al-Hashemi sentenced to death
Tariq al-Hashemi is now in Turkey, where he has held meetings with Turkish and Iraqi Kurdish politicians
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Struggle for Iraq

• Exploiting fragility
  
• Iraq's dilemma
  
• Message of hope
  
• Divisions laid bare
  

Iraq's fugitive vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi has been sentenced to death in absentia after a court found him guilty of running death squads.

The ruling came as at least 92 people were killed and more than 350 injured in more than 20 attacks across Iraq.

Hashemi was the most senior Sunni Muslim in the predominantly Shia Iraqi government until he was charged last December and went on the run.

The charges against him sparked a political crisis in Iraq.

Hashemi declined to comment on the court ruling after talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara, according to the Associated Press news agency.

The vice-president said only he would soon "tackle this issues in a statement".

Other Sunni politicians have denounced Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - who issued the warrant for Mr Hashemi - as a dictator, accusing him of deliberate provocation that risked plunging the country back into sectarian conflict.

One of the attacks was near the French consulate in the southern city of Nasiriya
Correspondents say the fragile coalition government of Sunnis, secularists and Shia has appeared to be in danger of collapse ever since.

Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaeda have been blamed for much of the recent violence in Iraq.

Sunday saw a fresh wave of killings, including:

• at least one car bomb explosion in Baghdad, which killed at least nine people on Sunday evening
  
• earlier, three car bombs in the capital's predominantly Shia districts killed 15 people
  
• a shooting and bombing attack on an army base north of Baghdad, which left 11 soldiers dead
  
• two car bomb explosions in the south-eastern city of Amara outside a Shia shrine, killing at least 14 people and wounding more than 60
  
• a bomb blast in the northern city of Kirkuk, which killed seven police officers
  
• a dawn raid on a military base in Dujail, north of Baghdad, in which 10 soldiers died
  
• a bomb explosion outside the French honorary consulate in Nasiriya, in the south, which left one person dead. The French government condemned the blast
  
• attacks were also reported in Tuz Khurmatu, Baquba, Basra and Samarra.
  

Sectarian tensions
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Tariq al-Hashemi

• Senior member of the secular, mainly Sunni Iraqiyya bloc
  
• Iraqi vice-president since 2006
  
• On 20 December 2011, arrest warrant issued for him on charges of running death squads; he flees to northern Iraq
  
• In April 2012, he leaves Iraq, going to Qatar and Saudi Arabia before arriving in Turkey
  
• In September 2012, convicted and sentenced to death in absentia; 30 days to appeal
  

The Iraqi government issued the warrant for Hashemi's arrest on 19 December 2011, the day after the last US troops left the country.

He fled first to the largely autonomous Kurdish north of the country, and from there to Qatar and on to Turkey.

Prosecutors said Hashemi was involved in 150 killings. During his trial in absentia in Baghdad, some of his former bodyguards said Mr Hashemi had ordered murders.

He says the charges against him are politically motivated and has accused Mr Maliki of fuelling sectarianism.

On Sunday, an Iraqi court found Hashemi and his son-in-law guilty of two murders and sentenced him to death by hanging. The judge dismissed a third charge for lack of evidence.

Although violence has decreased since its peak in 2006 and 2007, attacks have escalated again after the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq at the end of last year, amid increasing political and sectarian tensions.

The Iraqi government has been hampered by divisions between Sunni, Shia and Kurdish political groups.

The Iraqi government said July 2012 was the deadliest month in nearly two years, with 325 people killed.

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a Sunni, and many Sunnis believe they are being penalised by Shias, who have grown in influence since the US invasion.

Sunnis have accused Mr Maliki of taking an authoritarian approach to government.