A wave of attacks blamed on al Qaeda killed at least 39 people on Thursday, in what Iraq’s parliament speaker said was an attempt to derail an Arab League summit planned for the end of March. Security officials and medical sources said more than 250 people were wounded in the attacks, which hit six different provinces, and came just days after a suicide blast near a Baghdad police academy. “The terrorist al Qaeda organisation is trying to send messages to its supporters that it is still operating on Iraqi soil, and that it has the capability to strike in the capital and the cities and both big and small regions,” said a statement on the interior ministry’s website. Attacks occurred in religiously mixed Baghdad in central Iraq and Babil to its south, Sunni-majority Diyala, Salaheddin, and Nineveh province north of the capital. Violence also hit Kirkuk, an oil-rich province that the autonomous Kurdistan region wants to incorporate against Baghdad’s wishes. At least 16 car bombs and eight roadside bombs were set off on Thursday, and there were several shootings and a mortar attack. It was the deadliest day in Iraq since January 14, when 53 people were killed in a suicide bombing just outside the southern port city of Basra.
33 eh? Noted.
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