BAGHDAD: Violence including an apparently-coordinated series of bombings that struck central and south Iraq yesterday killed 33 people, security sources and medics said, bringing the July death toll to more than 370.
The attacks are just the latest in a surge in violence in which more than 2,600 people have died so far this year, according to figures based on security and medical sources.
Yesterday was the fourth day in a row in which more than 30 people were killed in attacks, and an average of 26 people have died per day in unrest in Iraq over the first two weeks of July. The deadliest attacks struck central and south Iraq last evening. In Kut, a car bomb near a bakery killed nine people and wounded 42, while another car bomb wounded two policemen to the north of Hilla.
A car bomb also struck a market in Karbala, a city home to one of the holiest sites in Shias, killing four people and wounding 19. Another car bomb exploded in Nasiriyah, killing two people and wounding 25.
A roadside bomb killed district councillor Mohammed Obaid Sultan south of Mosul, the province’s capital, along with one of his sons. Another son was wounded. The head of the same Hamam Al Alil district council, Saad Ali Shuwait, was targeted by another roadside bomb, which wounded four of his guards. In Mosul itself, two soldiers were shot dead at a checkpoint. And a policeman was shot dead and another wounded in an attack on a checkpoint south of the city, while a roadside bomb targeted Nineveh police chief Brigadier General Khaled al-Hamdani’s convoy, wounding three of his guards.
In Fallujah, gunmen shot dead police Lieutenant Colonel Iyad Al Samarraie and wounded two of his guards near a mosque.AFP
