Baghdad, Kirkuk blasts kill 42

Sunnis halt government talks in Iraq

Iraqi firefighters hose down burning cars after an attack involving three bombs took place in Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2014. In oil-rich Kirkuk, long disputed by Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government, three car  bombs went off in a crowded commercial district, killing over a dozen people and wounding over 100, Kirkuk deputy police chief Tarhan Abdel-Rahman said. (AP Photo)
Iraqi firefighters hose down burning cars after an attack involving three bombs took place in Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Aug. 23, 2014. In oil-rich Kirkuk, long disputed by Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government, three car bombs went off in a crowded commercial district, killing over a dozen people and wounding over 100, Kirkuk deputy police chief Tarhan Abdel-Rahman said. (AP Photo)

BAGHDAD -- Bombings in Baghdad and the northern city of Kirkuk killed at least 42 people in Iraq on Saturday as the government investigated a deadly attack on a Sunni mosque the day before that has heightened sectarian tensions.

The attack also led to Sunni lawmakers stopping talks on forming a new Iraqi government, creating a setback for President Barack Obama's efforts to ease the country's fragile political transition.

In oil-rich Kirkuk, long disputed by Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government, three bombs went off in a crowded commercial district, killing 31 people and wounding at least 130 others, Kirkuk Deputy Police Chief Tarhan Abdel-Rahman said.

One witness said he heard "an explosion between the cars, and then we started carrying out the dead bodies from there while people were burning inside the shops and cars." The witness asked not to be named for fear of retribution.

In Baghdad, a suicide bomber had earlier driven an explosives-laden car into the gate of the intelligence headquarters in Karrada district, killing six civilians and five security personnel, a police officer said. He said 24 other people were wounded.

A medical official confirmed casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media.

Also Saturday, an explosion in the Kurdish capital, Irbil, injured three people, according to military officials who declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak with the media. It remains unclear what caused the explosion; however, one military official said it may have involved a sticky bomb.

It was not immediately clear whether the explosions were related.

The attacks came after parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri said a committee of security officials and lawmakers was probing Friday's attack against a village mosque in Diyala province, northeast of the capital, which killed more than 60 people. The results of the investigation are expected in two days.

It remained unclear whether the attack in the village of Imam Wais was carried out by Shiite militiamen or insurgents from the Islamic State group who have been advancing into mixed Sunni-Shiite areas in Diyala and have been known to kill fellow Sunni Muslims who refuse to submit to the group's harsh interpretation of Islamic law.

Since early this year, Iraq has faced an onslaught by the Islamic State extremist group and allied Sunni militants, who have seized large areas in the country's west and north. The group took over Iraq's second-largest city Mosul in June, and has since declared an Islamic state, or caliphate, in territory under its control in both Iraq and neighboring Syria.

Local security officials in Diyala said Friday's attack began with a suicide bombing near the mosque entrance. Gunmen then stormed the building and opened fire on worshippers. At least 64 people were killed, including four Shiite militiamen who stumbled upon bombs planted by the militants as they rushed to the scene with security forces.

Sunni lawmakers offered a different account, saying Shiite militiamen had launched a reprisal attack on the mosque after their convoy was bombed.

Sunnis withdraw

The attack led two major Sunni parliamentary blocs to pull out of talks on forming a new government. The move creates a major hurdle for Shiite prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi as he struggles to reach out to Sunnis to form a government by Sept. 10 that can confront the Islamic State extremists.

In a news conference, al-Jabouri did not say who might have been behind the attack, saying only that such violence was "carried out by the same hands [of those] who want to derail the process of building the government."

Al-Jabouri heads one of the blocs that suspended talks, but he declined to comment on the move at the news conference, saying he was there in his capacity as parliament speaker. Al-Abadi issued a statement late Saturday calling upon all political blocs to submit their nominations for ministerial positions in the new government.

Imam Wais village is about 75 miles northeast of Baghdad in the ethnically and religiously mixed Diyala province, which saw heavy fighting at the height of Iraq's sectarian conflict in 2006 and 2007.

Firat al-Tamimi, a Diyala lawmaker, said there are conflicting accounts surrounding Friday's events. He confirmed, however, that there was a bombing near the mosque before the assault on worshippers.

The leader of one of the country's largest Shiite militias denied on Saturday any role in the attack.

"What happened [Friday] is a crime that we cannot turn a blind eye to," said Qais al-Khazali of the Iranian-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, which has been accused of attacks on Sunnis in the past.

Al-Khazali described the killing as "barbaric," adding: "It is something we do not accept and we categorically condemn."

Iraqi President Fouad Massoum, a Kurd, condemned Friday's attack and appealed "to all for self-restraint and to act wisely." He promised the attack would be "properly investigated and its perpetrators held to account."

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he's "deeply concerned about the impact such acts of sectarian violence will have on the already grave security situation and on the political process." The European Union said the "heinous crime" should not stand in the way of government formation and urged Iraqis to unite against violence.

Also Saturday, the head of the U.N. mission in Iraq urged Baghdad to go to the aid of a northern city that has been surrounded by Islamic State militants and almost entirely cut off from food and water for nearly two months.

"The situation of the people in Amerli is desperate and demands immediate action to prevent the possible massacre of its citizens," the envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, said in a statement.

Mladenov's appeal came a day after an influential Iraqi cleric, the Shiite Ayatollah Ali Sistani, called on Iraqi officials to airlift food and emergency supplies to the town of 18,000 people, mainly ethnic Turkmen who are adherents of Shiite Islam.

The siege of Amerli, about 100 miles north of Baghdad, has drawn comparisons to the plight of Yazidis, a small religious minority besieged by the Sunni extremists earlier this month.

U.S.: Threat growing

The breakdown in the Iraqi lawmakers' talks came as U.S. officials underscored a growing threat posed by the Islamic State.

Ben Rhodes, the deputy White House national security adviser, said Friday that the U.S. will consider airstrikes in Syria to combat the Islamic State, which beheaded American journalist James Foley earlier this month. It said Foley's execution was in retaliation for U.S. strikes that have helped Kurdish and Iraqi forces to regain some territory.

"Any strategy to deal with the ISIL organization has to deal with both sides of the border in Iraq and Syria," Rhodes said Friday, using the abbreviation of another name used for the Islamic State. While Obama hasn't approved such strikes yet, "we're not going to be restricted by borders," Rhodes said.

The U.S. continued to press the militants Saturday, conducting another airstrike that destroyed a vehicle near Mosul, where the Islamic State has occupied the country's biggest dam. It was the 94th U.S. strike in Iraq since Aug. 8, and the 61st near the dam, according to a statement from the U.S. Central Command.

The creation of a more inclusive government in Baghdad is crucial to three U.S. objectives: rebuilding Iraqi security forces, recruiting more Sunni tribal leaders to fight the Islamic State, and enlisting the aid of neighboring Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Some administration officials said they and the president are wary of expanding the overt U.S. role. Doing so risks unwittingly assisting the extremists' efforts to define the conflict as part of a centuries-old Christian crusader and Jewish war against Islam, said six officials who asked for anonymity to discuss internal policy deliberations.

Instead, three of the officials said, Obama has emphasized the need for al-Abadi to grant Sunnis and Kurds more power and positions in a new government.

As the events in Iraq continue to attract global attention, hundreds of ethnic Kurds marched in Paris on Saturday to demand more international support for civilians in Iraq facing assaults by the Islamic State.

Waving flags, chanting and marching behind a banner, the demonstrators pressed for more humanitarian and military aid for thousands of Yazidi refugees in the Sinjar mountains. Yekbun Eksen, a member of the Federation of Kurdish Associations of France, said the international aid was not yet enough to protect civilians.

The group has led peaceful weekly protests since Islamic State fighters attacked Sinjar earlier this month.

France and the United States have been among the countries providing military and humanitarian support for the embattled civilians in Iraq.

Information for this article was contributed by Sinan Salaheddin, Vivian Salama, Murtada Faraj and Bram Janssen of The Associated Press; by Shashank Bengali of the Los Angeles Times; and by John Walcott, Zaid Sabah, Lisa Lerer Roger Runningen, Aziz Alwan and Laurel Calkins of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 08/24/2014

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