Reuters
Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the offices of two Kurdish parties in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 10 people, witnesses and medical sources said. One of the dead was the deputy governor of Arbil province, witnesses said. They said the blasts hit the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the main factions in Iraq’s Kurdish north, as officials received visitors for a Muslim holiday. Many senior officials of the KDP, which controls the part of northern Iraq bordering Turkey, were present at the time of the blast. Arbil has been the site of a string of recent attacks, including a car bombing at the interior ministry that killed at least four people in December.
I somehow think that this is going to both help unite the two Kurdish parties and make them aggresive when it comes to security issues. One thing you can rely on with the Jihadis, is that they will choose the dumbest option.
FOLLOWUP: al-Jizz writes, admiringly...
The casualty toll is climbing after two bombers detonated explosives strapped to themselves at the offices of two rival Kurdish parties in northern Iraq. Sunday's blasts occurred at the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the northern city of Irbil. Kurdish officials said casualties are still being counted but one minister said the toll could reach 100. Hundreds had gathered at both party offices to mark the start of the al-Adha feast, a major Islamic holiday.
The dead include the governor of the region, ministers in the local administration and several senior officials, said Muhammed Ihsan, the minister for human rights for the Kurdish regional government. Morgue director Tawana Kareen was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that at least 57 bodies were brought to the morgue. The two bombs went off within five minutes of each other, at the two offices in the centre of Irbil, 10km apart. "These figures are estimates but I believe about 60 people were killed at the PUK and about 80 at the KDP. There are a tremendous number of injured," said Ihsan. "On the first day of Eid we receive people and well wishers and that's why security wasn't as tight as during the rest of the days," he said.
| You just can't afford to let your guard down around the Religion of Peace™... |
Ihsan said the dead included Irbil Governor Akram Mintik, Deputy Prime Minister Sami Abd al-Rahman, Minister of Council of Ministers Affairs Shawkat Shaikh Yazdin and Agriculture Minister Saad Abdullah.
| I'm wondering if this is a dry run for some sort of attack on the U.S. Congress... |
Officials were greeting people when the attacker approached them and detonated the explosives strapped around his body. |