Militants kill dozens in Iraqi mosque
August 22, 2014
A suicide bomber and several gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque in a volatile province outside Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least 64 people and wounding more than 60, officials said.
The attack in the Musab bin Omar Mosque in the village of Bani Weis in Diyala province, about 75 kilometers northeast of Baquba, also left at least 17 people wounded, officials said.
The Sunni officials blamed on Shiite militia members, came as the governments in Baghdad and Washington are trying to forge a broad alliance against the militant forces of the Islamic State, the Sunni-led insurgency that has seized huge swaths of the country since June.
Sunni lawmakers withdrew from negotiations to form a new government, saying they would not return until those behind the attack were arrested, two party officials told CNN.
Iraq's new Shi'ite prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, faces the task of trying to draw Sunnis into politics after they were sidelined by his predecessor Nuri al-Maliki.
Maliki stepped aside after pressure from Sunnis, Kurds, some fellow Shi'ites, Iran and the United States.
The Sunni militant group ISIS, has easily swept the Iraqi army from Anbar province in the southwest of Iraq as well as much of northern Iraq and then blunted attempts by the Iraqi government to retake cities.
The officials said that fighters with the Islamic State group have been trying to convince members of two prominent local Sunni tribes — the Oal-Waisi and al-Jabour — to join them, but they have thus far refused.
The towns of Jalula and al-Saadiyah have recently fallen to the Islamic State group but Imam Wais is thus far in government control.
ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, has steamrolled into Iraq's north, forcing hundreds of thousands of minorities from their homes.
In Diyala, Islamic State fighters have clashed with Kurdish forces guarding disputed territory claimed by the Kurdish regional government in the north. The extremist group pushed Kurdish forces out of the nearby town of Jalula earlier this month after heavy fighting.
The Islamic State group has also clashed with Shiite militiamen and security forces loyal to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. At the height of Iraq's sectarian bloodletting in 2006-2007 the province was among the country's most lethal areas.
Sources
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/8/22/iraq-mosque-shooting.html
http://online.wsj.com/articles/forty-killed-in-attack-on-sunni-mosque-1408713484
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/22/world/meast/iraq-violence/
A suicide bomber and several gunmen attacked a Sunni mosque in a volatile province outside Baghdad during Friday prayers, killing at least 64 people and wounding more than 60, officials said.
The attack in the Musab bin Omar Mosque in the village of Bani Weis in Diyala province, about 75 kilometers northeast of Baquba, also left at least 17 people wounded, officials said.
The Sunni officials blamed on Shiite militia members, came as the governments in Baghdad and Washington are trying to forge a broad alliance against the militant forces of the Islamic State, the Sunni-led insurgency that has seized huge swaths of the country since June.
Sunni lawmakers withdrew from negotiations to form a new government, saying they would not return until those behind the attack were arrested, two party officials told CNN.
Iraq's new Shi'ite prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, faces the task of trying to draw Sunnis into politics after they were sidelined by his predecessor Nuri al-Maliki.
Maliki stepped aside after pressure from Sunnis, Kurds, some fellow Shi'ites, Iran and the United States.
The Sunni militant group ISIS, has easily swept the Iraqi army from Anbar province in the southwest of Iraq as well as much of northern Iraq and then blunted attempts by the Iraqi government to retake cities.
The officials said that fighters with the Islamic State group have been trying to convince members of two prominent local Sunni tribes — the Oal-Waisi and al-Jabour — to join them, but they have thus far refused.
The towns of Jalula and al-Saadiyah have recently fallen to the Islamic State group but Imam Wais is thus far in government control.
ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State, has steamrolled into Iraq's north, forcing hundreds of thousands of minorities from their homes.
In Diyala, Islamic State fighters have clashed with Kurdish forces guarding disputed territory claimed by the Kurdish regional government in the north. The extremist group pushed Kurdish forces out of the nearby town of Jalula earlier this month after heavy fighting.
The Islamic State group has also clashed with Shiite militiamen and security forces loyal to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. At the height of Iraq's sectarian bloodletting in 2006-2007 the province was among the country's most lethal areas.
Sources
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/8/22/iraq-mosque-shooting.html
http://online.wsj.com/articles/forty-killed-in-attack-on-sunni-mosque-1408713484
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/22/world/meast/iraq-violence/
Comments
Post a Comment