Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




IRAQ WARS
17 killed, MP wounded in Iraq attacks
by Staff Writers
Baghdad (AFP) Nov 28, 2011


At least 17 people were killed and more than 50 wounded, among them an Iraqi member of parliament, on Monday in a wave of bloody attacks mainly in and around Baghdad, security officials and an MP said.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomber detonated an explosives-packed vehicle near the main entrance of Hout prison in Taji north of Baghdad at about 8:00 am (0500 GMT), as family members gathered to visit inmates.

An interior ministry official said 13 people were killed and 28 wounded by the blast, while a defence ministry official put the toll at 12 dead and 26 wounded.

Justice ministry spokesman Haidar al-Saadi said six of the dead in Taji were police working under the ministry who were on their way to work at the prison.

The bomber "blew himself up on the highway near the prison, where family members of prisoners were gathering" before a visit, Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim Atta said.

Later, an Iraqi member of parliament was wounded and two other people killed in an explosion, the cause of which was disputed, near parliament.

The blast was alternatively said to have been from a mortar shell, a suicide bomber, and a magnetic "sticky bomb."

"A mortar round landed near parliament's car park. One colleague, (MP) Muayid al-Tayyeb, was wounded," MP Ali al-Shila told AFP.

The interior ministry official said that two people were killed and seven wounded by a mortar round, while the defence ministry official said three people were killed and four wounded by an explosion in a parliament parking area, but that "it is not clear if it was a car bomb or a mortar shell."

It was not clear if the MP was included in the number of wounded given by the security officials. Differing tolls are common in the confusion following attacks in Iraq.

"What happened today was a suicide operation against members of parliament while they were leaving parliament," a high-ranking security official said on condition of anonymity.

That account was also backed by Aidan Helmi, media adviser to Iraqi parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, who said that the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber and termed it a botched "assassination attempt" on Nujaifi.

Helmi said a man driving a black vehicle of the type that make up Nujaifi's convoy tried to enter the VIP gate of parliament, backed up when asked for a badge, hit another car, exited his vehicle, argued with the other driver, and blew himself up.

The US military, when asked about the parliament blast, said that "there was an MAIED (magnetically attached improvised explosive device) near the northeast corner of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It has not been characterised as a suicide attack."

The interior ministry official also said that two people were killed and four wounded by a magnetic "sticky bomb" on a vehicle in the Mansur area in western Baghdad.

And one person was killed and 18 others wounded by three roadside bombs in the disputed north Iraq city of Kirkuk, Major General Turhan Abdul Rahman, the deputy director general of Kirkuk police, said.

Monday's deaths raise the toll from a week of surging violence across Iraq to at least 61.

On Sunday, bomb and gun attacks killed four people and wounded nine, while the previous day 16 people were killed and 20 wounded in bombings and shootings in Baghdad and Abu Ghraib, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of the capital.

Three bombs exploded in the southern port city of Basra last Thursday, killing 19 people, including high-ranking army and police officers, and wounding at least 65.

And five people were killed in attacks in the disputed northern Iraq city of Kirkuk on November 22.

Violence has declined nationwide since its peak in 2006 and 2007, but attacks remain common. A total of 258 people were killed in October, according to official figures.

General Lloyd Austin, the top US commander in Iraq, has warned of "turbulence" on the security front as American forces depart and militant groups seek to take advantage of the vacuum.

He specifically pointed to Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Iranian-backed militias.

American troops are set to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, bringing to a close an almost nine-year war that has left thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis dead, and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

.


Related Links
Iraq: The first technology war of the 21st century






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








IRAQ WARS
Iraq's Kirkuk may prove fertile ground for militants
Kirkuk, Iraq (AFP) Nov 26, 2011
Iraq's disputed oil-rich Kirkuk province may turn into fertile ground for militant groups including Al-Qaeda after the US withdrawal, officials from the province warn. Ethnically divided Kirkuk lies at the centre of a tract of territory which Kurdish leaders want to incorporate in their autonomous region in the north despite the opposition of many of the province's Arab and Turkmen residents ... read more


IRAQ WARS
Schafer Corp Signs Licensing Agreement with MoonDust Technologies

Russia wants to focus on Moon if Mars mission fails

Flying over the three-dimensional Moon

LRO Camera Team Releases High Resolution Global Topographic Map of Moon

IRAQ WARS
NASA Launches Most Capable and Robust Rover to Mars

Did US climate weapon knock-out Russian probe

Russia's Medvedev evokes Stalin ahead of elections

The Martian Chronicles Continues With Russian Bit Part

IRAQ WARS
Looking for a Space Job

Thanksgiving in space may one day come with all the trimmings

More U.S. science degrees by foreign-born

ULA Completes Milestone Toward Certifying Atlas V For Human Spaceflight

IRAQ WARS
15 patents granted for Chinese space docking technology

China plans major effort in pursuing manned space technology

Tiangong-1 orbiter enters long-term operation management

China launches two satellites: state media

IRAQ WARS
Satellite junk no threat to space station crew

Space Station Trio Lands Safely in Kazakhstan

Russian Soyuz brings astronauts safely back to Earth

New Trio Welcomed Aboard Station, Gets to Work

IRAQ WARS
Assembly milestone reached with Ariane 5 to launch next ATV

Russia launches Chinese satellite

AsiaSat 7 Spacecraft Separation Successfully Completed

Pleiades 1 is readied for launch

IRAQ WARS
Habitable Does not Mean 'Earth-Like'

Exo planet count tops 700

Giant planet ejected from the solar system

Three New Planets and a Mystery Object Discovered Outside Our Solar System

IRAQ WARS
Kindle sales quadrupled on Black Friday: Amazon

Mapheus-3 - spherules, metals and microgravity

Recycle this: Bolivian turns waste into high fashion

Carbon nanotube forest camouflages 3d objects




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement