Saturday 30 June saw more than 30 people killed in violence across the country. A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a Shi'ite mosque in northern Baghdad killing at least 12 people during evening prayers, police and medics said, in the deadliest of a series of attacks that claimed more than 30 lives across Iraq on Saturday. A suicide bomber blew himself up among the worshippers in the middle of evening prayer and a further 25 people were wounded in the attack, which took place in the Sab al-Bor district near Taji, 20 km north of Baghdad.
Scattered attacks continued through the weekend across the country with devastating effect. A suicide bomber killed four people at a police checkpoint in the northern city of Mosul and a large VBIED killed 19 in Tuz Khurmato, a city that bore the brunt of significant levels of violence this week.
In the western province of Anbar, which shares a border with Syria, militants detonated two car bombs near a checkpoint and attacked it with rocket-propelled grenades, killing five policemen and two people were killed when gunmen hurled a hand grenade at a gathering of laborers in Tikrit, 150 km north of Baghdad, whilst a roadside bomb near some restaurants in the center of Baghdad killed two more.
Monday brought some limited respite however violence flared on Tuesday with multiple bombings in Baghdad and the northeast.
45 people died Tuesday 25 June on one of the worst days of violence in the past weeks. Two suicide bombers killed at least eight Iraqi Turkmen on Tuesday 25 June when they blew themselves up at a protest by members of the ethnic minority group. The attackers walked into the encampment on the Baghdad-Kirkuk highway, near the town of Tuz Khurmato, 170 km north of the Iraqi capital, where Turkmen were protesting against what they saw as government failure to protect them. Protesters were gathering near the coffin of a man who died of serious injuries from a previous bomb in the town, when suddenly a powerful blast hit the protest tent. The second blast happened as protesters tried to take the wounded to hospital
Tuz Khurmato remains a hotbed of insurgent activity with a mixed population of ethnic Kurds, Arab Sunnis and Shi'ite Turkmen vying for influence. The latter have recently been targeted in a series of attacks on their gatherings of Turkmen, their headquarters and on prominent members.
Further south Baghdad was rocked by multiple high impact coordinated VBIEDs. Ten car bombs exploded across the city, killing nearly 40 people in markets and garages on the evening of a Shi'ite Muslim celebration. Some of the attacks targeted districts where Shi'ites were commemorating the anniversary of the birth of a revered Imam, but there were also explosions in mixed neighborhoods and districts with a high population of Sunnis. Eight people were killed in two car bomb explosions in the central district of Karada, one of them in a car garage and two car bombs exploded simultaneously near a market in the western district of Jihad, killing eight.
Separately, a bomb placed in a cafe in the northern city of Mosul killed five people, pushing the day’s death toll over 40.
Despite a marginal drop off in attack tempo the number of casualties and deaths remains significant as the daily churn of violence continues. Fewer yet more effective high impact attacks have taken their toll. As a result this week we have seen an almost 100% increase in casualties with approx. 217 people killed for the period 19 – 26 June.
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