BAGHDAD: Gun attacks and a bombing killed at least six more people in Iraq yesterday, police said, after a day of carnage aimed mainly at Shia Muslims celebrating the end of Ramadan.
Iraqis angrily blamed the authorities for failing to head off attacks that killed 74 people as they marked the Eid Al Fitr holiday ending Iraq’s deadliest Ramadan in years.
The international community roundly condemned the violence, which also wounded more than 320 people, but almost all senior Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki, made no mention of the attacks.
It was the latest in months of bloodshed that have sparked fears of a return to the all-out sectarian war that peaked in 2006 and 2007 and left tens of thousands dead.
Iraqis voiced frustration with the government and security forces for failing to prevent the 16 car bombings and other attacks which killed 74 people, 47 of them in Baghdad on Saturday.
“There will not be any improvement in the Iraqi situation,” said a man who gave his name as Abu Samer, near the site of a twin car bombing in Shaab, north Baghdad, where eight people were killed.
“I cannot trust any politicians, because they make many promises, and the result of their work is what happens in our country each day.”
The 64-year-old retired agricultural engineer said he hoped to send his children overseas, “far from what is happening in Iraq and Baghdad.”
In east Baghdad, at the site of another car bombing, Ali Al Shammari said Iraq’s long-running political deadlock was to blame.
“The presence of one party and another opposed to it is much better than dozens of political parties, even if they say we are in a dictatorial regime, because it is much better than dozens of people being killed each day,” said Shammari, 35, a cigarette seller.
“I will never vote for another person again,” the father-of-three continued. “How long should we live in this situation because of politicians?”
Security forces tightened searches at checkpoints in the capital, causing long queues of traffic, a measure often used after deadly attacks, but which came too late for the dozens of victims.
And yet there was fresh violence yesterday with attacks south of Baghdad, north of the capital and in the northern city of Mosul killing six people, officials said.
More than 800 people were killed during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ended last week, in the deadliest violence since 2008 when Iraq was slowly emerging from brutal bloodletting.
The US, Britain and the UN condemned the latest attacks, with Washington reiterating a $10m bounty for information leading to the killing or capture of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the head of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an Al Qaeda front group.
“These attacks ... are clearly intended to fuel sectarian strife and destabilise the country,” Alistair Burt, a minister at Britain’s Foreign Office, said.
“I call on all political, religious and community leaders to work together to combat this type of violence,” he added.
Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, urged Iraqi authorities to “end draconian responses” to attacks, including torture of suspects, coerced confessions and convictions based on secret testimony.
AFP
