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August 29, 2009

Suicide Car Bombers Kills 15 in Northern Iraq
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=264C63A:A6F02AD83191E160FEA4B9BBB61924B598CBE7246176B735&
 
Police say first attack came early Saturday in town of Shirqat, killing
at least nine people, wounding several others 
Map of Iraq Iraqi police say two separate suicide car bombings in
northern Iraq
have killed at least 15 people and wounded at least 30 others. Police
say the first attack came early Saturday in the town of Shirqat. They
say a car bomber targeted a police station killing at least nine people
and wounding several others. The second attack came about two
hours later in the town of Sinjar near Mosul where several people were
killed when a car-bomb exploded. The attacks are the latest in a
rash of violence in Iraq, particularly in the north, where security is
not as tight as elsewhere. On Friday, U.S. military officials in
Iraq said two American soldiers died from wounds suffered in a roadside
bomb attack in Baghdad. Also Friday, thousands of Iraqis took to
the streets of Baghdad to mourn the death of Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz
al-Hakim. His body arrived in Iraq for burial, two days after he died
in neighboring Iran from lung cancer. Iraqi Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki says Hakim's loss comes at a "sensitive" time for Iraq,
with Parliamentary elections set for January. Hakim headed
Iraq's largest Shi'ite political party, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic
Council. His death comes just days after Prime Minister Maliki's Dawa
party split from a Shi'ite coalition that has dominated Iraq's
government since 2005. On Friday, Hakim's son, Ammar al-Hakim, called
on parties that decided not to join the coalition to reconsider their
stance. Security was tight around Shi'ite mosques, shrines and
political party offices in Baghdad during the massive funeral
procession, which is expected to end with Hakim's burial Saturday in
the southern holy city of Najaf. Some information for this report was
provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.


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