23 killed, 55 injured in central Iraq car bomb

Baquba, IRAQ (Agencies( A car bomb ripped through an Iraqi market on Friday, killing at least 23 people in the third major attack in 11 days, two months after a general election failed to result in a new government.

The blast in the town of Khales, in Diyala province 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, struck at around 7:30 pm (1630 GMT), close to an office of the police rapid reaction force.
In addition to the killed, 55 people were wounded, according to an official from Diyala’s security command.
“Policemen were securing the market like they always do, but I want to ask — how did that car enter the market?” said Haitham Hussein al-Tamimi, who was being treated for leg wounds at Baquba hospital in the provincial capital.
“The police work hand-in-hand with the terrorists, and the government in Baghdad must rectify this situation,” added Tamimi, who owns a shop in the market that was hit.
“Two months ago, Khales was hit by a big attack, and today it was the same again.”
On Mar. 26, twin bombings in front of a cafe and a restaurant in Khales killed 42 people and wounded 65 others.
Friday’s attack was the deadliest to hit Iraq since May 14, when a double bombing at an unprotected football match in the north of the country killed 25 people and wounded 120.
Those attacks came just four days after around five dozen bombings and shootings across the country killed 110 people on the bloodiest day in Iraq this year.
Iraq’s security forces have vowed to eliminate the newly named leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which was blamed for the violence on May 10 that left more than 100 dead.

Tensions

AQI’s previous leaders Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the group’s political chief, and Abu Ayub al-Masri, an Egyptian militant who was the insurgent network’s self-styled “minister of war,” were killed on Apr. 18 in a joint U.S.-Iraq operation.
Tensions have been running high since an inconclusive Mar. 7 parliamentary election left a power vacuum and raised concerns about a renewal of sectarian violence.
A cross-sectarian coalition led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and supported heavily by minority Sunnis won a two-seat victory over a mostly Shiite bloc headed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Iraq’s minority Sunnis feel they have been marginalized by the political ascent of the Shiite majority since the 2003 U.S. -led invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.
A manual recount in Baghdad confirmed initial results from the poll, which put the Iraqiya bloc of ex-premier Allawi in the lead with 91 seats in the 325-member Council of Representatives.
Maliki’s State of Law alliance came second with 89 seats and the Iraqi National Alliance, led by Shiite religious groups, came third with 70.
Figures released this month showed the number of Iraqis killed in violence in April fell slightly compared to March, but was almost unchanged from a year ago — 328 people died as a result of attacks last month.
The latest attack also came as the U.S. military, which currently has about 94,000 troops in Iraq, is on track to reduce the force to 50,000 by September.

Source: Al Arabiya