A female suicide bomber killed the head of a local security group northeast of Baghdad yesterday, the targeted leader's brother and provincial police said. A child and a security guard were also killed.
The woman, wearing an explosives belt, entered the house of Sheik Thaeir Ghadhban al-Karkhi in the predominantly Sunni town of Kanaan, 20km east of Baqubah in Diyala Province, and blew herself up, said Duraid Mahmoud, the sheik's brother.
A provincial police official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to release the information, confirmed the attack.
PHOTO: AFP
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but al-Qaeda in Iraq has been targeting fellow Sunni Arabs who have taken up arms against the militants and joined the so-called awakening councils like the one al-Karkhi led.
The councils are made up of US-backed former insurgents who have risen up against al-Qaeda's brutality and the strict Islamic codes of conduct it was trying to impose on local populations.
Mahmoud, the sheik's brother, said the bomber had visited the sheik's house on Sunday, claiming that her husband had been kidnapped and asking for help.
Mahmoud said his brother told the woman to return yesterday.
"She came back this morning and nobody checked her. She had an appointment with the sheik and the guards told her to go and knock on his door," Mahmoud said.
The woman was ushered into the house and blew herself up once she got close to the sheik, Mahmoud said.
Meanwhile, anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will remain in overall charge of his Shiite radical movement even as he steps back from its day-to-day operations to pursue his religious studies, aides said yesterday.
Sadr has no intention of quitting Iraqi politics despite the widespread perception that he was withdrawing after he admitted on Friday that there were splits within his movement, the aides said.
Sadr has "not ceased his contact with us and he remains in control of strategic decisions," said Liwa Sumaysim, the head of the movement's political bureau.
On Friday, the cleric admitted that some of the movement's leaders had broken away after he ordered a six-month extension to a freeze on the activities of its Mehdi Army militia which he first announced last year.
"Many of my close companions have departed for worldly reasons, some of them want to be independent," Sadr said.
"The fact that a number of people did not return to their hawza [religious school] and the fact that many are meddling in political lives while we thought they were loyal has made me isolate myself," he said.
Sadr's spokesman in Najaf, Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, said the cleric's statement should not be seen as a decision to quit politics.
"The letter does not mean that Sadr wants to isolate himself from the political sphere," Obeidi said.
He has "found a new way to deal with day-to-day issues, focusing on the essentials, which is knowledge and religion, and following the events from a distance," Obeidi said.
Also see: Passing on the cost of conflict to future generations
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
Gaza is rapidly running out of its limited fuel supply and stocks of food staples might become tight, officials said, after Israel blocked the entry of fuel and goods into the war-shattered territory, citing fighting with Iran. The Israeli military closed all Gaza border crossings on Saturday after announcing airstrikes on Iran carried out jointly with the US. Israeli authorities late on Monday night said that they would reopen the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel to Gaza yesterday, for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid” into the strip, without saying how much. Israeli authorities previously said the crossings could not be operated safely during
RSS