Policemen and investigators inspect the remains of a car bomb that exploded outside the ministry of education in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk yesterday.
BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives to a military headquarters in western Iraq and blew himself up outside it yesterday, killing at least 14 people, police said.
The attack, which appeared to be the latest incident in a wave of violence by Sunni insurgents against the Shia-led government, took place near the city of Ramadi, 100km west of Baghdad. Most of the victims were soldiers.
In Dujail, north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb struck a wedding party, killing six people and wounding 22, officials said.
The blast went off near the musicians who typically accompany wedding convoys in Iraq, but the bride and groom were unharmed.
Dujail is a predominantly Shia Muslim town, and while no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, Sunni militant groups linked to Al Qaeda frequently target Shias, whom they regard as apostates.
The rest of yesterday’s bloodshed, however, was largely concentrated in mostly Sunni Arab towns and cities to the north and west of Baghdad, areas that have been roiled in recent months by angry anti-government protests and are among Iraq’s least stable.
A suicide bomber detonated a tanker truck rigged with explosives at an army checkpoint along a highway in the western province of Anbar, killing four people, according to sources.
The attack, which struck close to provincial capital Ramadi along the route connecting the city to the Syrian border, killed three soldiers and a civilian and wounded 14 others.
Elsewhere, several gun and bomb attacks killed five people in the northern province of Nineveh, including three soldiers, and a bomb targeting a Sunni mosque in the restive city of Baquba killed two others.
In the disputed city of Kirkuk, meanwhile, gunmen kidnapped and executed a lawyer.
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