9 killed in fresh violence in Iraq
Attacks in Iraq killed nine people and wounded 19 on
Wednesday, officials said, as the country witnesses its deadliest violence
since 2008.
Gunmen killed five people and wounded eight in two attacks
in Baghdad province, while two bombings in Kirkuk province, north of the
capital, wounded five soldiers and a policeman.
And gunmen armed with automatic weapons shot dead two people
near Baquba, north of Baghdad, in an area that has been hit by frequent attacks
in recent weeks.
A car bomb also wounded five people south of Tikrit.
With the latest violence, more than 850 people have been
killed in July, and more than 3,100 since the beginning of the year, according
to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on Iraqi
political leaders to bring the country "back from the brink," while
the interior ministry has warned of civil war.
Iraq has faced years of attacks by militants, but analysts
say widespread discontent among the Sunni Arab minority, which the government
has failed to address, has fuelled the spike in violence this year.
Recent attacks include brazen assaults on two Iraqi prisons
in which dozens of people died, and over 500 inmates, among them senior
Al-Qaeda members, escaped.
Comments
Post a Comment