BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Sunni mosque in central Iraq, killing at least 20 people in the middle of a sermon yesterday, police and medics said. The explosion took place in the town of Wajihiya in the ethnically and religiously diverse province of Diyala, which has seen an increasing number of attacks in recent weeks. It was not clear who was behind the blast, which appeared to be part of a sustained campaign of militant attacks that has prompted fears of wider conflict in a country where ethnic Kurds and Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims have yet to find a stable power-sharing compromise.
Dubai frees British trio in drug case
LONDON: Three Britons convicted on drugs charges in Dubai, who claimed they were tortured in prison, have been freed in an amnesty, diplomatic sources in London said yesterday. Grant Cameron, 25, Karl Williams, 26, and Suneet Jeerth, 25, all from east London, were convicted in April of possessing for consumption more than one kilogramme (2.2 pounds) of synthetic cannabis known as Spice.
They were jailed for four years each and the Dubai Appeal Court upheld their sentences. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are aware that the 2013 amnesty list has been announced in the United Arab Emirates and that the local authorities have begun the process of releasing those included.
Gunmen kill air force officer in Benghazi
BENGHAZI: Gunmen have abducted and killed a senior Libyan air force officer in the eastern city of Benghazi, cradle of the country’s 2011 armed uprising, a security official said. “Unidentified assailants aboard a pick-up truck in military uniforms abducted a pilot, Colonel Aguila Milud Al Obeidi, while he was at a friend’s house in the Al Guarsha district before killing him,” Colonel Mohammed Al Hijazi said.
Agencies
