Death toll rises to 11 in Iraq blast
A suicide bomber targeting a gathering of Iraqi soldiers and civilians commemorating Army Day killed at least 11 people in central Baghdad today, police said.
Among the dead were four police officers, three Iraqi soldiers and four civilians, a police officer said.
At least 17 other people were injured in the attack, which took place around 12:30pm local time.
Army Day – an official holiday – this year marks the 87th anniversary of the establishment of Iraq’s army with military parades and other ceremonies.
In north-eastern Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded at the entrance of a popular restaurant, killing one policeman and two civilians, and wounding 12 others, a police official said.
In eastern Baghdad a parked car bomb exploded and four mortars landed in the area of a bus terminal. Police said one civilian was killed and three others wounded.
Near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, a joint Iraqi-US patrol today discovered the heads of five decapitated people, Iraqi military officials said. No further details were immediately available.
Near the city of Khalis in volatile Diyala province north-east of Baghdad, suspected al Qaida in Iraq fighters attacked the house of a local sheikh and kidnapped him and 13 members of his family, an official from a joint co-ordinating office said.
Earlier today in Baghdad, a Shiite tribal sheikh who was part of an effort to form an armed group to combat militias in his Baghdad neighbourhood was shot and killed, police said.
Sheikh Ismaiel Abbas, believed to be 45, was outside his house in Shaab when he was shot by gunmen driving by in two cars, a police officer said. Shaab is one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in Baghdad and Shiite militias are active in the area.
A resident of the neighbourhood, who asked not to be named saying he feared reprisal attacks, said Mr Abbas was in the process of helping form an armed “backing council” to combat the growing influence of the militias.
In other parts of Iraq, so-called “awakening councils” – groups of mostly Sunni anti-al Qaida in Iraq fighters – have sprung up in the last year. The groups have been credited by American and Iraqi officials for helping cut violence across the country by 60%.
