Suicide Bombing near Iraq Place of Worship Kills a Dozen

There have been reports of a suicide bombing targeted at a Shia place of worship (known as a husseiniyah) in Kirkuk, northern Iraq on Thursday, leading to the deaths of at least 12 people.

According to eyewitness accounts, the suicide bomber had attempted to gain entrance to the al-Zahraa husseiniyah. Realizing that he couldn’t carry out his attack due to the refusal by the police to let him in, he detonated the explosives at the entrance, killing at least 12 people and wounding 18 others.

A senior police officer said that family members of victims from a spate of bomb blasts that had occurred the day before were at the husseiniyah receiving condolences at the time of the attack.

Only on Wednesday, six people were brutally killed in a car bomb explosion in Sadr City with about 17 others wounded. Then, another attack saw the deaths of three people, with nine others wounded, according to reports by the medical officials.

The attacks have been blamed on the unending Sectarian dispute occurring between the Sunni minority, and the Shiites majority, of which the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is a member. Accusations have been passed around, most especially at Nuri’s regime for targeting the Sunni community wrongly

Hezbollah is ready to receive “game-changing” weapons from Syria- Militia Chief

Only days after the Israeli air strikes were reported to have hit Iranian shipments of weapons bound for Hezbollah, chief of the Lebanese Shia group said on Thursday that Syria will supply “game-changing” weapons to Hezbollah.

Hassan Nasrallah’s speech, which was televised to an audience in Beirut as a security precaution, explained that the resistance against Israel is prepared to accept any sophisticated weaponry even if it was to break the equilibrium in the region.

“We are worthy of having such weapons and we would use them to defend our people and our country and our holy sites”, he added.

He also said that the weapons shipments were a strategic response of Syria to Israeli airstrikes.

Although, Israel never acknowledged the airstrikes in Damascus, it indicated that the government will do what is necessary to prevent Hezbollah from receiving future weapon shipments, meaning that they could get involved in the two-year civil war if Nasrallah’s threat is valid.

Only recently, Hezbollah admitted that its fighters have been backing Assad’s forces in the war against the rebels trying to remove Assad from power.

“We in the Lebanese resistance declare that we stand by the Syrian popular resistance and give our material and moral support, and cooperate and coordinate in order to liberate the Syrian Golan,” he said.

During the statement, there were reports of fierce clashes between the rebels and fighters loyal to Assad around the rebel-run town of Qusayr, close to the border with Lebanon.

“The Syrian army seized back control of Shumarlyeh in the Qusayr countryside and troops are currently on their way to the village of Ghassaniyeh,(which has been under the rebel control for more than a year),” an official from the army told AFP news agency on Thursday.

In another related issue, Israeli security officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that there was information being passed to the US from Israel in a bid to persuade Russia from selling S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, which would greatly improve their air defense system.

 
Earlier in the day, Syrian Information minister Omran al-Zoubi had indicated that Assad’s government is willing to go into negotiations for a solution that will end the conflict, but added that they will continue to eliminate “terrorists”, a term used to describe the rebels and their supporters.