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| Iraq |
| Suicide Bomber Kills Nine |
| 2014-08-26 |
| [IN.REUTERS] Iraq's Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi said on Monday he was optimistic about forming a new government soon with a "clear vision", but fresh bomb attacks in Baghdad and other cities underlined the country's deepening sectarian conflict. Abadi is tasked with forming a power-sharing administration that can ease tensions and counter Islamic State militants who pose the biggest security threat to Iraq since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. "The talks to form the government were positive and constructive. I hope in the next two coming days to agree on a clear vision of a unified programme for the government," he said. Shortly after Abadi spoke, a suicide bomb attack in a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad killed at least nine people and wounded 21, police and medical sources said. The attacker detonated his suicide bomb vest inside the mosque in the New Baghdad district of the capital at prayer time, police said. Two car bombs were also detonated in the Shi'ite holy city of Karbala on Monday, killing four people and wounding 17, police and medical sources said. An additional two car bombs targeted the city of Hilla, south of Baghdad, but there were no fatalities or injuries, police sources said. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for four car bombs in northern Iraq on Saturday, three of them in the city of Kirkuk, where Kurdish fighters have flocked since Iraqi army units quit their posts in June, and one in Arbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdish region. The militant group said the attacks were in response to Kurdish forces joining the U.S. military to attack them. |
| Posted by:Fred |