Vice President Hashimi made his feelings over post-election machinations known, while at least 12 Iraqis were killed and 25 more were wounded in the latest violence. Also, government figures showed a post-election increase in civilian deaths for April.
Vice President Tareq Al-Hashimi, who is a member of the Iraqiya party, complained of unlawful attempts to change the results of parliamentary elections. He accused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law party of making solutions impossibly to reach.
In Baghdad, a complex attack at a jewelry shop left three dead and seven wounded; gunmen first killed the storeowner, but then a bomb close to the scene exploded, harming first responders and bystanders. Three policemen were killed and two others were wounded at a checkpoint in Qahira when they were investigating a car that turned out to contain explosives. In New Baghdad, a roadside bomb wounded two civilians. Another civilian was wounded in a bombing in Doura.
In Mosul, a policeman mistakenly killed an off-duty soldier he believed to be a gunman. Ten people were wounded when gunmen launched a grenade attack at a market. A mortar attack wounded one civilian. Gunmen killed a man inside a store. A teacher was shot dead leaving a mosque. A roadside bomb killed a policeman yesterday. Over 200 people held a sit-in outside the Ninewa provincial building to protest of secret prisons and detainee abuse. Two suspects were captured.
Two men were killed as the bomb they were planting in Fallujah exploded prematurely.
In Mussayab, a roadside bomb wounded three people at a market.
Five suspects were arrested in Mahmoudiya for colluding with al-Qaeda elements.
In Turkey, Kurdish rebels killed four soldiers and wounded seven in an attack on a military outpost. This is the worst attack blamed on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) since violence ticked up following the high court’s shutdown of a pro-Kurd political party in December and the recent assault of the party’s leaders by a Turk nationalist. The PKK uses bases in Iraq from which to launch attacks; however, they recently had been looking for a permanent truce.
