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30 killed in Iraq car bombings

Baghdad, June 16, 2013

Attacks across Iraq killed at least 30 people on Sunday, police and medics said, intensifying fears of a descent into all-out sectarian war.
 
Ten years after the US-led invasion that toppled Sunni leader Saddam Hussein, a stable power-sharing compromise between Iraq's Sunni, Shi'ite and ethnic Kurdish factions is still elusive and violence is on the rise.
 
More than 1,000 people were killed in militant attacks in May, according to the United Nations, making it Iraq's deadliest month since the intercommunal strife of 2006-07.
 
Regional sectarian tensions have been inflamed by the conflict in Syria, Iraq's neighbor, where Sunni rebels are fighting to overthrow a leader backed by Shi'ite Iran.
 
Two car bombs exploded minutes apart in Basra, 420 km southeast of Baghdad, killing at least five people and tearing off shop fronts.
 
"We heard a bang and rushed outside," said Ali Fadhil, who was working at a nearby bakery. "I saw cars on fire, dead bodies covered with blood, and wounded people lying on the ground screaming for help."
 
"When police arrived, a second blast struck which was more powerful, leaving the street in a state of total destruction."
 
Another car bomb exploded in a busy market in Najaf, killing at least seven people, and blasts also hit Nassiriya, Kut, Hilla, Tuz Khurmato and Mahmudiya in southern Baghdad.
 
Near the northern city of Mosul, gunmen shot dead six policemen at a checkpoint in Hadhar, police said.-Reuters



Tags: Car | Iraq | Bombing |

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