In a week that saw the Shia community heavily targeted Saturday 15 June saw two people were killed in a mortar attack on an Iranian dissident camp in the Iraqi capital on Saturday, ISF sources reported. The Mujahadin-e-Khalq (MEK) group (MEK, which was removed from the U.S. State Department's official list of terrorist organizations last year, calls for the overthrow of Iran's clerical leaders and fought on Iraq's side in the Iran-Iraq war during the 1980s. It is seeking to recast itself as an Iranian opposition force but is no longer welcome in Iraq under the Shi'ite Muslim-led government that came to power after U.S.-led forces invaded and toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.), said a further 27 people were wounded in the attack. A similar attack in February killed at least five of its members. The Iraqi Police said 11 Iranian nationals inside the camp and six Iraqis outside it had been wounded.
Sunday 16 June was a particularly violent day in the southern belt after a number of weeks of relative calm. Attacks across Southern Iraq targeting mainly Shi'ite Muslims killed at least 49 people on Sunday, further intensifying fears of a descent into all-out sectarian war. Two synchronized VBIEDs exploded minutes apart in the predominantly Shi'ite southern oil hub of Basra, 420 km southeast of Baghdad, killing at least five people and tearing off shop fronts in a typically sophisticated attack. Further north, but still in the Shia heartland, in Najaf another car bomb exploded in a busy market in the Shi'ite holy city, killing at least seven people, and blasts also targeted Shi'ites in Nassiriya, Kut, Hilla, Tuz Khurmato and Mahmudiya in southern Baghdad.
As the coordinated attacks continued throughout the day further afield near the city of Mosul gunmen shot dead six policemen at a checkpoint in Hadhar in a fierce skirmish.
After a very southerly focus the violence shifted north through Monday with coordinated attacks hitting Shia communities in Baghdad. Two coordinated suicide bombings at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Baghdad killed at least 29 worshippers at noon prayers on Tuesday, Iraqi medical sources reported.
The first bomber detonated his charge at a checkpoint about 100m away from the mosque in al-Qahira district of northern Baghdad. He was followed minutes later by a second who blew himself up inside the building.
The reporting period ended with an attack against the political establishment in the north of the country. A suicide bomber blew himself up as he embraced a Sunni Muslim political leader killing the man and four of his family a day before local elections in the area. Pretending to be a guest at a family gathering, the attacker hugged Younis al-Rammah before detonating an explosive vest. Rammah headed the moderate Sunni "United Iraq Gathering" movement, a minor political group, police and local officials said.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack in Hadhar in Nineveh Province, 80 km south of Mosul however extremist Sunni elements are most probable given al-Rammah’s moderate stance. It is likely that similar such attacks will be perpetrated in the run up to these delayed local elections, especially given the inter community tensions and the fact that the province originally had their elections postponed due to insecurity.
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