BAGHDAD: Attacks mainly targeting members of Iraq’s security forces in areas north of Baghdad killed 12 people yesterday, officials said.
Security forces, often plagued by shortcomings such as a lack of discipline and training, are frequently targeted by militants, as the country suffers its worst violence in years.
Gunmen attacked an army checkpoint in a village north of Baquba, killing three soldiers and wounding three more, while a bomb targeted a police major general’s convoy near Tuz Khurmatu, killing two of his guards and wounding three.
Two more roadside bombs exploded in Tuz Khurmatu, killing two brothers and wounding 18 people, while a soldier was killed by a magnetic “sticky bomb” on his vehicle in Tikrit.
In Mosul, two civilians died in clashes between soldiers and gunmen who attacked their checkpoint, and two more soldiers were killed in another checkpoint attack in the northern city.
Violence in Iraq has reached a level not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a period of brutal sectarian killings that left tens of thousands dead.
All of one city and parts of another to the west of Baghdad have been held by anti-government fighters for weeks.
It is the first time they have exercised such open control in major cities since the height of the insurgency that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.
Violence in Iraq has killed more than 520 people so far this month and over 1,500 since the beginning of the year, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.
Libya to give compensation to molested women
TRIPOLI: Libya will offer compensation to women raped during the 2011 Nato-backed uprising which toppled Muammar Gaddafi, its justice minister said yesterday, touching a taboo subject.
Hundreds of women may have been raped during the eight-month conflict, according to the International Criminal Court, which has collected evidence that pro-Gaddafi forces used rape as a weapon to spread fear among its opponents.
No exact figures for the number of women raped are available.
Human rights activists have pushed for compensation, but rape victims are often ostracised in the conservative Muslim country where discussion of the crime remains taboo, so it is not clear how many victims would actually come forward.
Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani said the cabinet had issued a law that would recognise women raped during the conflict as war victims, putting them on the same level as wounded former rebel fighters requiring medical treatment. “This group (of women) is weak and needs our care,” Marghani told reporters. “It (the law) will give them many rights...and cover also compensation.”
Tunisian pardoned over Prophet caricatures
TUNIS: A Tunisian jailed for posting caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) online has received a pardon from President Moncef Marzouki, his spokesman said yesterday, but it is unclear whether he will be released.
“A presidential pardon for Jabeur Mejri has been issued for the case in which he was condemned to nearly eight years” in prison, spokesman Adnene Manser told Shems FM radio.
Mejri, 29, was sentenced in March 2012 to seven and half years in jail for posting cartoons of the prophet on his Facebook page. He was convicted of transgressing morality, defamation and disturbing public order, since the penal code does not punish blasphemy.Agencies
