Iraq: Attacks kill at least 14 people

Wednesday, May 28

BAGHDAD — A suicide car bomber struck a police checkpoint in Baghdad, killing at least six people in the deadliest in a series of attacks on Wednesday that left 14 people dead in Iraq, officials said.

The attacks are the latest in a months-long surge in violence, and come as Iraqi political rivals prepare to start negotiations to form a new government following last month’s national elections.

The suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into the police checkpoint in the capital’s northern district of Kazimiyah, killing three policemen and three civilians, a police officer said. He added that 18 others were wounded in the attack.

In the northern town of Tuz Khormato, a series of bomb blasts rocked residential areas, killing at least four civilians and wounding seven others, said Shalal Abdol, the mayor of the town, which is located about 200 kilometers (130 miles) north of Baghdad.

Two other civilians were killed and three wounded in Baghdad’s western suburb of Abu Ghraib when a bomb went off in a commercial area, a police officer said. Another civilian was killed and three wounded in the northeastern suburb of Husseiniyah, and a lawyer was shot dead while driving through the eastern New Baghdad neighborhood, police added.

Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.

On Tuesday a wave of attacks killed 21 people. The deadliest was a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque, which killed at least 17 worshippers.

Violence in Iraq is at the highest level since the country was pushed to the brink of a sectarian civil war in 2006 and 2007, with the spike in attacks driven by Sunni discontent with the Shiite-led government and spillover from the war in neighboring Syria. Last year violence killed 8,868 people, according to the U.N.