Baghdad: Gun and bomb attacks in Baghdad and
central Iraq have killed seven people, while a representative of the country`s top Shiite cleric was wounded, officials
said.
In the deadliest attack that took place yesterday, a
magnetic "sticky bomb" attached to a car in the north Baghdad
neighbourhood of Al-Utaifiyah was followed by a roadside
bombing, killing five people and wounding 21 others, an
interior ministry official said.
Four policemen were among those wounded in the attacks,
the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In the east Baghdad district of Zafraniyah, a roadside
bomb at a football pitch killed two young boys and wounded 13
others, according to a police official and a doctor at
Zafraniyah hospital.
And in the town of Al-Qassim, gunmen wounded a
representative of Iraq`s top Shiite cleric as he was returning
home from prayers on Wednesday evening.
Sheikh Karim al-Khalidi, a representative of Grand
Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, was shot and seriously
wounded in the centre of Al-Qassim, some 130 kilometres (80
miles) south of the Iraqi capital.
Sistani is Iraq`s most senior Shiite Muslim cleric whose
stature dwarfs that of any Shiite politician, including Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"Unknown gunmen attacked Sheikh Karim al-Khalidi in
Al-Qassim," said an official in Sistani`s office in the holy
Shiite city of Najaf of southern Iraq.
The attack was the first assassination attempt on
Khalidi, the official said, on condition of anonymity.
A medical official in Hilla, capital of Babil province
of which Al-Qassim is part, said Khalidi was "in serious
condition. He is still in the hospital as he was shot in the
chest."
PTI
