BAGHDAD: Bombs planted outside Baghdad mosques killed eight more people yesterday at the end of a week of bloodshed that prompted a United Nations envoy to warn Iraq was “at a crossroads”.
At least 150 people have been killed since Tuesday, when troops stormed a Sunni protest camp, triggering clashes that quickly spread to other Sunni areas in western and northern provinces.
Although well below the heights of 2006-7, this week’s violence was the most widespread since US troops pulled out of Iraq in December 2011. Militant attacks have increased this year as Iraq’s fragile ethnic and sectarian balance comes under growing strain from the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
“I call on the conscience of all religious and political leaders not to let anger win over peace, and to use their wisdom, because the country is at a crossroads,” UN envoy Martin Kobler said in a statement.
Tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims poured onto the streets of Ramadi and Falluja in the western province of Anbar following Friday prayers, in their biggest show of strength since the outbreak of protests last year.
In Ramadi, about 100km west of Baghdad, the preacher, who wore military fatigues with his cleric’s turban, gave security forces 24 hours to quit the city, warning he would not be responsible for whatever happened after that.
Iraqi Sunnis have been protesting since December against what they see as the marginalisation of their sect since the US-led invasion overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 and empowered majority Shias through the ballot box.
The demonstrations had recently eased, but this week’s army raid on a protest camp in Hawija, near Kirkuk, 170km north of Baghdad, reignited Sunni discontent and appears to have given fresh momentum to insurgents.
In Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near the Sunni Kubaisi Mosque, killing four worshippers as they left after Friday prayers, police and medics said.
Reuters
