While Shi’ites observed the Eid al-Ghadeer holiday, one Shi’ite school in Sadr City suffered a tragic attack. At least 19 Iraqis were killed and 56 more were wounded there and across the country. The bombing comes just as Iraqi officials are hoping to pin down a date in late February for national elections. Full details were not revealed, but Parliament approved a new elections law late yesterday after Sunni and Kurdish objections were apparently resolved.
At least eight people were killed and 41 others were wounded during a blast at a boy’s school in Sadr City. Many of the victims were young children. The cause of the explosion was not immediately known because witnesses gave conflicting accounts, but police suspect it was stockpiled ammunition. Some officials put the number of victims higher at 15 dead and as many as 56 wounded. Sadr City is a large but poor suburb of Baghdad and his home to well over a million Shi’ites.
Gunmen killed six Sahwa members near Tarmiyah at a Nadeem checkpoint.
In Tarmiyah, Gunmen also planted a bomb at a Sahwa leader’s home, killing his wife and injuring four others family members. Another bomb wounded four civilians.
The bodies of two Sahwa members were discovered near Kirkuk.
In Baghdad, a bomb killed a soldier and wounded two others in a southeastern neighborhood. A bomb in the Mansour killed one civilian and wounded five others. A man was arrested for impersonating a judge.
A bomb was defused in Karbala.
Fourteen suspects were captured in Basra province.
Two suspects were arrested in Diyala province.
