Bombers kill more than 35 across Iraq
2013-01-16 22:30
Kirkuk - More than 35 people died in a suicide attack and
other bombings in northern Iraq and Baghdad on Wednesday, worsening sectarian
strife as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki faces mounting pressure from minority
Sunni muslims and Kurds.
Shoppers and police helped drag bloodied survivors out of
the rubble and wrecked vehicles after a car bomb and a suicide bomber in a
truck set off huge blasts in Kirkuk, near the local headquarters of the
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
Maliki, a Shi'ite muslim, is locked in a feud with ethnic
Kurds in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan over disputed oilfields and is also
confronting Sunni protesters in a western province calling for him to step
down.
"A suicide bomber driving a truck packed with
explosives detonated the vehicle outside the KDP headquarters. It's a crowded
area; dozens were killed and wounded," Police Brigadier Sarhat Qadir told
Reuters in Kirkuk.
Local Kirkuk health officials and police said at least 25
people were killed and more than 180 were wounded.
Another five people died and 37 more were wounded in
another bombing outside a rival Kurdish political party office in Tuz Khurmato,
170km north of Baghdad.
Roadside bombs and gun attacks in Baghdad and Baiji,
north of the capital, have killed seven policemen and soldiers.
A year after the last US troops left, Iraq's government
of Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish parties is mired in a crisis over how to share
power, increasing worries that the OPEC member state may relapse into
wide-scale sectarian bloodshed
Political turmoil
Violence and unrest are compounding concern that the
conflict in neighbouring Syria, where mainly Sunni rebels are fighting Shi'ite
Iran's ally President Bashar Assad, will upset Iraq's own delicate sectarian
and ethnic balance.
Wednesday's attacks came a day after a suicide bomber
killed an influential Sunni muslim lawmaker in the west of Iraq, where
thousands of Sunni protesters have been holding mass demonstrations against
Maliki.
Sunni turmoil erupted in late December after state
officials arrested members of a Sunni finance minister's security team on
terrorism charges. Authorities denied the arrests were political, but Sunni
leaders saw them as a crackdown.
Since the fall of Sunni strongman Saddam Hussein after
the 2003 US-led invasion, many Sunnis feel they have been marginalised by the
leadership of the Shi'ite majority.
Maliki's National Alliance Shi'ite coalition and
Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc held preliminary talks in parliament on Wednesday in
attempt to defuse the crisis by addressing the demands of the demonstrations.
"We have to admit that we have a tough job ahead to
reach common ground," Ali al-Shallah, a lawmaker with Maliki's alliance.
"All the blocs agree to allow time for the government to review protest
demands; that's one step."
Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, a prominent
Shi'ite who heads the committee investigating protest demands, said the
government had so far freed more 400 detainees held under anti-terrorism laws
as a concession.
But protesters want detainees released, a modification of
terrorism laws and more control over a campaign against former members of
Saddam's outlawed Baath party, a measure they believe is being used unfairly to
sideline their leaders.
Violence in Iraq is down since the height of sectarian
bloodletting in 2006-2007, when thousands were killed. But last year witnessed
a rise in deaths for the first time in three years with more than 4 400 people
killed in attacks.
