Baquba: At least six people were killed in
bomb attacks in Iraq today, including a device which blew up
in a mock coffin during a demonstration, security sources
said.
Dozens of people took part in the protest in Khales, 65
kilometres north of Baghdad, to demand stiff penalties for the
perpetrators of anti-Shiite attacks in the city, the local
security operations command said.
The demonstrators were carrying a mock coffin when a
booby-trapped device exploded inside the box, killing three
people and wounding seven, an official at the centre told.
Sectarian tensions remain high in Khales, a city which in
2006-2007 was a battleground between Sunni insurgents of
Al-Qaeda and Shiite militias.
At the end of May, a car bombing in a Khales marketplace
killed 30 people, two months after another 42 people perished
in a double bomb attack near a coffee shop and a restaurant.
In Baghdad today, two bombs exploded near a petrol
station in the central district of Muhandicin, killing two and
wounding five others, the capital`s police said.
And a man was killed in the western city of Fallujah when
a "sticky bomb" attached to his car blew up, a local police
official said.
Although overall levels of violence in Iraq have fallen
markedly since their peak in 2006 and 2007, deadly attacks
against civilians and security forces take place on a daily
basis.
Iraq has only a caretaker government more than four
months after a general election in which no clear winner
emerged.
PTI
