BAGHDAD/HILLA: Bombs exploded in predominantly Shia districts of the Iraqi capital and in the southern city of Hilla yesterday, killing at least 49 people, police and hospital sources said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, but Shias are a target for Sunni insurgents who have been regaining ground in Iraq over the past year and overran several towns in recent weeks. Hilla police chief, Major General Abbas Abid, blamed groups linked to Al Qaeda.
“Al Qaeda terrorist groups stand behind today’s attacks in Hilla to confuse the security forces and cause high casualties among civilians,” he said. “They are criminals and they never get enough of innocent blood”.
Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki has appealed for international support and weapons to fight Sunni Islamist Al Qaeda, but critics say his own policies are at least partly to blame for reviving an insurgency that climaxed in 2006-07. Many in Iraq’s once-dominant Sunni minority deeply resent Maliki and feel they have been sidelined in the Shia-led political order that took shape following the US-led invasion in 2003. Some fellow Shias also accuse Maliki of abusing his power. Powerful Shi cleric Muqtada Al Sadr, who withdrew from politics at the weekend, said Iraq was governed by “wolves thirsty for blood and money”.
“Politics has become a door for injustice and recklessness, despotism and abuse, so that a dictator and tyrant can take over and seize control in order to plunder money, break necks, fight cities and divide sects.”
Nine killed, 14 soldiers kidnapped in South Yemen
ADEN: Nine people were killed and 14 soldiers kidnapped yesterday after a clash between gunmen and Yemeni troops in the southern city of Dalea, a separatist stronghold, local residents and the defence ministry said.
The incident occurred when gunmen attacked a truck carrying food supplies, the defence ministry said on its website. In the ensuing clash, four soldiers and one officer were killed and 14 others were abducted by what the ministry called “saboteurs”.
Local residents said four civilians, including a child, were also killed in the incident. The identity of the gunmen was not immediately clear. Dalea is a stronghold for separatists demanding restoration of the former socialist state of South Yemen, which merged with the North in 1990.reuters
Militia ultimatum is coup threat, say Libyan MPs
TRIPOLI: Libya’s interim assembly said it was facing an impending “coup” yesterday after ex-rebel militias gave it a five-hour deadline to hand over power. The potential crisis comes exactly three years after the start of the Arab Spring uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi but left the sprawling North African country with a weak central government that has struggled to impose order on former rebel brigades.
Powerful militias made up of former rebels from the western town of Zintan gave the General National Congress, the country’s highest political authority, an evening deadline to quit yesterday, threatening to seize any lawmaker who ignored it.
“We are giving the (General National) Congress, whose mandate has expired, five hours to hand over power,” commanders of the Zintan militias said in a televised statement, indicating a deadline of around 1930 GMT.
“Any member of Congress who stays will be... a legitimate target and will be arrested, then judged.”
AFP
