BAQUBA: A suicide bomber killed 22 people and wounded 60 in a crowded election campaign tent in the Iraqi city of Baquba yesterday, police and medics said.
A decade after the US-led invasion, Iraq is still struggling with political instability and violence that in recent weeks has killed at least 10 candidates who had planned to run in forthcoming local elections.
The vote is due to be held across the country later in April, but has already been delayed in two Sunni Muslim-majority governorates due to security concerns.
The suicide bomber attacked a gathering for Sunni candidate Muthanna Al Jorani in Baquba, 65km northeast of the capital Baghdad. Jorani himself escaped unscathed.
Candidates in Iraq often put up tents during campaigning as a venue to meet potential voters and explain their policies.
“First a hand grenade targeted the tent next to the one I was in,” a 23-year-old wounded in the attack said by telephone from hospital. “People were running in every direction and bits of chair were scattered all over the place.
“A few seconds later, an explosion took place in the same tent.”
Most of the 10 candidates killed earlier belonged to the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shia politician. Sectarian and ethnic tensions have risen since the US withdrawal from Iraq in December 2011, inflamed by the conflict in neighbouring Syria.
Reuters
