Last month saw deadly violence in Iraq drop near its lowest levels for the year, figures compiled by Agence France-Presse showed yesterday, despite a wave of attacks a day earlier which killed 23 people.
Overall, 139 people were killed across the country last month, including 40 policemen and 15 soldiers, and 347 were wounded, according to the data based on reports from security and medical officials.
The monthly death toll was near last year’s low of 136 set in October.
However, in a sign insurgents were still capable of carrying out deadly nationwide attacks, a series of shootings and bombings in the north, center and south of the country killed 23 people and wounded 83 on Monday.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but Sunni militants such as al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq regularly target officials and security forces in a bid to destabilize the government and also often attack Shiite pilgrims.
The violence comes after anti-government protesters blocked a key highway to Syria and Jordan amid political tensions between Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and a secular Sunni-backed party in his fragile national unity government.
Much of Monday’s violence targeted Shiite pilgrims, ahead of Arbaeen commemoration ceremonies due this week.
In the deadliest attack, seven people — three women, two children and two men — were killed when three houses were blown up in the town of Mussayib, south of Baghdad, police and a medic said. Four people were wounded.
The victims were apparently targeted because they were Shiites, the officials said.
Attacks on Shiite pilgrims embarking on the traditional walk to the holy shrine city of Karbala for Arbaeen commemorations also killed one person and wounded 19.
Arbaeen marks 40 days after the Ashura anniversary commemorating the slaying of Imam Hussein, one of Shiite Islam’s most revered figures, by the armies of the caliph Yazid in 680.
Sunni militants often use the rituals as an opportunity to increase attacks against Shiites.
Attacks in Baghdad and north of the city killed 13 people.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the