Attacks in Iraq have killed at least 13 people and wounded 99
others, a day after a series of
bombings killed 77 people across the country, officials have
said.
A suicide bomber set off his explosives-laden vest on Tuesday at
a military checkpoint in the town of Tarmiyah, 50km north of
Baghdad.
Fighters opened fire at the troops after the blasts, killing
three soldiers and wounding nine, a police official said.
Meanwhile, in the northern city of Tuz Khormato, two parked
car bombs went off simultaneously, killing three civilians and
wounding 38 people, said Mayor Shalal Abdool.
Amid continued violence, the Iraqi parliament called off an
emergency session to address the latest wave of violent attacks,
after failing to achieve a quorum, Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh,
reporting from Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan region, said.
Our correspondent said that parliamentary members loyal to
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's boycotted the meeting.
"It really tells you how dysfunctional the state is, and how
the political in-fighting between this country's leaders has
reached a deadlock," Saleh said.
"The Iraqi people will tell you that the government as well
as the political leaders are to blame, because everytime they
disagree on something, that disagreement translates into
bloodshed and escalation into sectarian violence," he said.
'Sectarian war'
In Kirkuk, 290km north of the capital, three bombs exploded
back-to-back at a sheep market, killing six people and wounding
many more, police Colonel Taha Salaheddin said.
"I heard the explosions, but never thought this place would
be targeted since these animals have nothing to do with
politics, nothing to do with sect, nothing to do with ethnicity
or religion," Mahmoud Jumaa, whose cousin was killed in the
multiple bombings, said.
More than 200 people have been killed in the past week in
attacks, with both Sunni and Shia communities targeted.
Sectarian tensions have been worsening since Iraq's minority
Sunnis began expanding protests over what they say is
mistreatment at the hands of Prime Minister Maliki's mainly
Shia-led government.
Hours after Monday's bombings, Maliki accused armed groups of
trying to exploit Iraq's political instability and vowed to
resist attempts to "bring back the atmosphere of the sectarian
war".
The Iraqi prime minister has announced plans to overhaul the
country's security strategy and personnel, and that the matter
would be discussed at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Mass demonstrations by Sunnis, which began in December, have
largely been peaceful. However, the number of attacks rose
sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest
camp in northern Iraq on April 23.
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