STRING OF SUICIDE BOMBINGS HIT IRAQ

String of suicide bombings in Iraq

The attacks, including the deadliest to hit Baghdad since August, came days after US military delivered an upbeat report on security in the country, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

By Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar
posted January 02, 2008 at 10:00 am EST

http://tinyurl.com/2kx9ak



Two suicide attacks in Iraq, including the deadliest to hit Baghdad since August, killed at least 56 people and wounded at least 42 on Tuesday and Wednesday. The attacks came days after the US military delivered an upbeat report on security in the country, reporting that levels of violence had dropped over the past year.

A female suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint of neighbourhood patrol volunteers Wednesday morning in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, reports Reuters. The attack killed 10 and wounded eight, police said.

It was the latest in a wave of suicide bomb attacks that has appeared to intensify in recent days and weeks, even as overall levels of violence in Iraq have fallen.

Two policemen and four patrol volunteers were among the dead, police said. Among those killed was Abdul-Rafaa al-Nidawi, whom police described as the coordinator between U.S. forces and the volunteer patrols in the city.

The attack was on one of many "mainly Sunni Arab neighborhood patrols, paid by US forces to oppose Al Qaeda fighters, [which] have frequently been targeted in recent months," reports Al Jazeera.