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Car bomb in Iraq kills 13, wounds 33: sources
[Al Arabiya] A car boom went kaboom!at a car showroom in the Iraqi town of Muqdadiya on Thursday, killing at least 13 people and wounding 33 others, security sources said. In the worst violence, a vehicle packed with explosives exploded in the middle of a car sales fair in the town of Muqdadiyah, northeast of Storied Baghdad in restive Diyala province. Iraqi army Major Abbas al-Tamim put the casualty toll at 13 dead and 35 maimed. Muqdadiyah is a mostly Shiite Mohammedan town with a substantial Sunni population. While violence has declined nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, Diyala remains one of Iraq's least secure regions. Two young Kurds were killed when security forces opened fire to disperse an unruly protest in Iraqi Kurdistan on Thursday, as Iraq's prime minister warned that riots would not be tolerated. The protest and a similar rally in southern Iraq on Wednesday in which a teenager died were Iraq's most violent since a wave of Arab revolts broke out last month that have toppled the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt. In a bid to head off the protests, Storied Baghdad has pledged to slash the salaries of MPs and ministers and also postponed the planned purchase of US F-16 fighters, diverting the funds to purchase food supplies for the needy. Around 3,000 people, most of them under 30, marched on Thursday to the headquarters of the two dominant political parties in the autonomous Kurdish region's city of Sulaimaniyah, northern Iraq. "We are here against corruption, which is spreading throughout the region, and we demand those responsible be punished," said 27-year-old Hassan Karim, a university student. After throwing rocks at the local offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of regional president Massud Barzani, the protesters attempted to storm the building, prompting security forces to fire into the air. Posted by: Fred 2011-02-18 |
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