Dozens killed and injured in Taza Khurmatu

[Anthea]

Kirkuk Now

Suicide bombers have targeted Martyrs square in the Taza Khurmatu district where the Turkmen demonstrations were held, leaving dozens killed and injured.

Kirkuk Now’s reporter stated that ambulances were heading to Taza Khurmatu to transfer the injured to the hospitals of Kirkuk, while there is speculation that Turkmen officials have been killed and are among the victims. Among them are the deputy of Turkmen Front Ali Hashim and the deputy governor of Saladin province Ahmad Abdulwahab.

The blast coincides with the current demonstrations against violence in the district.

Samr al-Izi and Salam al-Ansari – Kirkuk Now

http://kirkuknow.com/english/index.php/ ... -khurmatu/

[Anthea]

aljazeera

Suicide bombers attack Iraqi-Turkmen rally

At least eight people killed by twin blasts targeting protesters near northern town of Tuz Khurmato.



Two suicide bombers have attacked a tent packed with protesters in northern Iraq, killing at least eight people and wounding 51 others, officials said.

A protest by members of a group of ethnic minority Iraqi-Turkmen was taking place at that time.

The attackers struck at around mid-day on Tuesday in the ethnically-mixed town of Tuz Khurmato, interim town mayor Talib al-Bayati told the AFP news agency.

Among the dead were a former deputy provincial governor and his two sons.

The protesters had been rallying over poor security in the town, which is regularly hit with attacks.

Tuz Khurmato lies within a tract of territory that the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq wants to incorporate into its three-province region, over Baghdad's objections.

Shia pilgrims attacked

Also on Tuesday, a magnetic "sticky bomb" attached to a minibus went off near the town of Iskandiriya, south of the capital Baghdad, as Shia pilgrims were on their way to Karbala for Shabaniyah commemorations.

Three people were killed and 15 were wounded, police and a doctor said.

Early on Tuesday morning, meanwhile, gunmen wounded two guards outside an Assyrian church in east Baghdad.

The attacks struck a day after a wave of car bombs across the Iraqi capital and unrest north of Baghdad killed 35 people, as the country grapples with a prolonged political deadlock and violence at its worst levels since 2008.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeas ... 45767.html