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

Dozens of People Dead after Iraqi Raid on Sunni Protest Camp

At least 27 people, mostly Sunni protesters and gunmen were left dead with 70 others injured in the northern city of Hawija on Tuesday, after a clash between gunmen and Iraq’s security forces in Kirkuk province, according to a senior Iraqi official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.  

Although, there have been conflicting reports on the actual death toll, but, there were losses on both sides as 3 security officers and 20 protesters were killed, according to the defense ministry.

The clash began when Iraq’s security forces, who were on the manhunt for wanted persons, raided the al-Atisam Square, which happen to be the site where the Sunni protesters were demonstrating.

In a statement, the defense ministry said, ‘when the armed forces started to enforce the law using units of riot control forces, they were confronted with heavy fire.’ In the raid, they detained some protesters and confiscated a huge arsenal of assorted weapons like AK-47s, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

In a contrasting report, the protesters have claimed that they were unarmed when the security forces raided their site. A protester, Ahmed Hawija, claimed that when the security forces raided the square, they (the protesters) were unprepared and unarmed, and the security forces crushed some of them (the protesters) in their vehicles.

The violence didn’t end there. 3 checkpoints around Hawija were also seized by tribal Sunni militants for a short while, until government forces took control later.

Earlier Tuesday, some Sunnis also came under attack in southern Baghdad when two roadside bombs went off as worshippers exited a mosque. 7 people were reported dead, with about 13 others injured, according to police reports.

Tensions between the Shiites and the Sunnis have only grown worse with the latest development. In the Anbar province of Falluja, there have been reports of angered citizens setting two army vehicles on fire, and others near Falluja attacked an army convoy.

While Sunni politicians have pointed accusing fingers at the Shiite prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, for the assault on the peaceful Sunni protesters, Iraqi House Speaker, Osama al-Najafi issued a strong condemnation on the military.

He said, ‘we condemn in the strongest words of condemnation and denunciation the unfortunate crime committed by the army against the demonstrators in Hawija.’

Al-Maliki has ordered an investigation, and instructed that aid be given to the wounded, with compensation to the aggrieved families.

It was also reported that two Sunni Cabinet members- Mohammed Tameem and Abdul Karim al-Samarrai, Minister of Education and Minister of Science and Technology respectively, have resigned over the actions on the protesters by security forces.

Thousands of protesters left their homes to protest on the streets that are predominantly Sunni provinces, demanding that the Shiite-led government should stop looking down on Sunni community, since December.

Car Bomb Explodes Outside French Embassy in Libya Leaving Three Wounded

A car bomb exploded outside the French Embassy in Libya on Tuesday. According to reports, the bomb took off the front wall of the embassy along with its reception area, wounding two guards and a Libyan teenager.

  

It set fire at the embassy’s entrance which engulfed some offices, and wounded a Libyan girl who was having breakfast in a nearby house, according to a post by Deputy Prime Minister Awad al-Barassi on his Facebook page.

So far, no individual or group has taken responsibility for the attack after the blast occurred early in the morning. But, al-Qaeda’s AQIM threatened to retaliate for the French intervention in Mali just recently.

In the past, there have been several attacks on diplomatic missions in Benghazi, but this attack was the first since the civil war ended with Moammar Gadhafi’s death. The US Ambassador in Libya Chris Stevens, along with a few other Americans, was killed when militants attacked the U.S. diplomatic mission in the eastern city on September 11.

Clearly, France has been a major ally of the Libyan government and such an assault was seen by many as equal in impact as the killing of Ambassador Stevens. The lawlessness in Benghazi prompted U.S., Britain and many others to evacuate the city of their citizens and close their missions.

A senior research fellow at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris, Karim Bitar, told reporters that it is the first time that the capital suffers such an attack. He stressed that it is symbolically important because it is where institutions are. He added that it is a message that such groups can strike pretty much anywhere.

In an article of The Monitor, the following was written: ’’French President Francois Hollande condemned the act, saying it was an attack not just against France but ‘all countries in the international community engaged in fighting terrorism.’ It is unclear what the motive was and whether there is a link to France’s intervention in Mali or its ouster of the late Mr. [Moammar Gadhafi].

Libya is struggling to maintain security and build a unified army two years after the country’s civil war. Libyans have been carrying out protests, demanding that authorities label all militias as illegal groups. They want the militia commanders and their soldiers to be integrated into the army since loyalty strongly exists between commanders and their fighters as a group.

Lawmaker Tawfiq Breik of the National Forces Alliance explained that the number one party benefitting from the attacks is the militias and extremists for any step the country takes, the attacks drag them back.

 In his own words, he stressed that the message to the outside world is that Libya is slipping into terrorism. He added that the goal is to empty the capital of foreign and diplomatic missions like Benghazi and that the big loser is the Libya people if no decisive measures are taken.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was to travel to Tripoli later on Tuesday to assess the situation and return home with the two wounded French guards, at Hollande’s request.