BAGHDAD: Violence in Iraq killed 22 people yesterday among them seven police, officials said, as an Al Qaeda front group claimed a wave of attacks that killed dozens the day before. The country is witnessing its worst violence since 2008, when it was emerging from a bloody sectarian conflict.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on Monday for Iraqi political leaders to bring the country “back from the brink,” and the interior ministry warned of civil war. An Al Qaeda-affiliated group claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings across Iraq that killed 60 people on Monday and the interior ministry said it was facing an “open war” from insurgents bent on plunging the country into sectarian strife.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which was formed earlier this year through a merger between Al Qaeda’s affiliates in Iraq and Syria, said in a statement posted online it had carefully selected its targets, which were mainly Shias.
The 17 blasts were the latest in a relentless campaign of bombings and shootings that have killed more than 4,000 people since the start of the year. Nearly 900 people have lost their lives in militant attacks in July alone. A further 20 people were killed in scattered attacks last evening, and the bodies of two unidentified men were found in the northern city of Mosul with gunshot wounds and their hands bound behind their backs. “The country is currently facing an open war from bloodthirsty sectarian forces that aim to plunge the country into chaos,” said the Interior Ministry, warning it would deal harshly with anyone found harbouring or helping insurgents.
The ministry said it was setting up a hotline for citizens to report information that uncovered “terrorist cells”, offering big cash rewards to anyone who came forward. Hundreds of convicts ran free after simultaneous attacks on two high-security prisons last week, raising questions about the ability of Iraq’s security services to combat al Qaeda, which has been regaining momentum in its insurgency against the Shi’ite-led government.
“The latest operations came at the height of security deployment after the blessed operations to break the chains of the lions in Abu Ghraib and Taji jails,” read the statement by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The groups said Monday’s attacks were part of a “heavy price” the government would pay for its mistreatment of the Sunni minority, which resents Shia supremacy since the US-led invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Sectarian tensions in Iraq and the wider region have been inflamed by the civil war in neighbouring Syria, where mainly Sunni rebels are fighting to overthrow a leader backed by Shia Iran. Six people were killed on Tuesday when a bomb exploded outside a cafe in central Baquba 50km northeast of Baghdad, and another bomb in a Sunni mosque in the town of Tuz Khurmato killed 3 people including the preacher.Agencies
