Good thing Barack Obama won that war and made it safe for democracy.
A policeman stands guard at the site of a bomb attack in Kirkuk
BAGHDAD – A string of bomb attacks across Iraq killed at least 50 people on Monday and wounded 144 more, police and hospital sources said, in one of the bloodiest days in the past weeks.
Violence in Iraq has eased since the height of sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but insurgents still carry out deadly attacks, especially around the capital, and deadly car bombs on Sunday shattered a lull in violence in the lead-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started on Saturday.
In Taji, 20 km north of Baghdad, six blasts, including a car bomb, exploded near a housing complex on Monday, killing 14 people and wounding 29, sources said. When police arrived at the scene, another blast killed 10 police officers.
Two car bombs struck near a government building in Sadr City, a poor Shi’ite neighborhood in Baghdad, and in the northern mainly Shi’ite area of Hussainiya, killing in total 16 people and wounding 73, police said.
In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, four car bombs killed four people and wounded 15 others. Explosions and gun attacks on security checkpoints in different parts of the restive eastern province of Diyala killed six people, including four soldiers and policemen, and wounded 30, police sources said.
Tensions have been high since the last US troops left in December, with ongoing political crises between Iraq’s main Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions.
On Sunday, car bombs in two towns south of Baghdad and in the Iraqi city of Najaf killed at least 20 people and wounded 80.
Last month at least 237 people were killed and 603 wounded in attacks, making it one of the bloodiest months since US troops withdrew.
UPDATE – Death toll up to 106 with over 200 injured in attacks spread over 15 cities.
Meanwhile, Obama on the same day comes out bragging that he ended the war.
Via ABC News:
Is it bad timing or irrelevant?
President Obama’s campaign today released a video praising the president for ending the war in Iraq. It turns out that today has proven to be the deadliest day of the year in that country.
A wave of attacks throughout Iraq – IEDs, explosions, and gunmen — has resulted in more than 100 people killed and more than 200 wounded.
Yesterday, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Qaeda’s top leader in Iraq, released an audio message announcing, ”We are setting off a new stage of our struggle, with the launch of a plan named ‘breaking the walls.’”
On the other hand, none of the dead appears to be American – which may be all that U.S. voters, and many policymakers, care about.
