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Khanaqin suicide bomb attack kills 16 - 5.2.2009 |
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Terrorists want to destroy the happiness of the
Kurds over their election victory in Khanaqin
February 5, 2009
KHANAQIN, Iraq's border with Kurdistan
region,— Casualties from Thursday’s earlier attack
by a female suicide bomber inside a restaurant in
the Kurdish city of Khanaqin rose to 16
death and 13 others wounded, a security source said.
“A female suicide bomber blew herself up inside the
Dilshad restaurant in Khanaqin, leaving 16 people
killed and 13 others injured,” the agencies reported
.
“The explosion caused damage to 10 stores and seven
vehicles near the scene,” the source noted.
A security source had said that a suicide bomber
detonated his explosive vest inside a restaurant in
central Khanaqin, killing 12 and wounding 11 others.
In Khanaqin, police Col. Azad Essa said the bomber
struck inside the Abu Dilshad restaurant. Officials
said the diner was crowded with civilians, many of
them celebrating the peaceful provincial election.
Unlike the last provincial election in 2005, when
more than 40 people died in bombings, shootings and
mortar strikes, nobody was killed in
election-related attacks Saturday.
Kurdish and police officials said most of the
victims were Kurds lunching at the popular
restaurant.
Dr. Mohammed Saleh at the Kalar Hospital near
Khanaqin said the death toll was 16, and 12 people
were injured.
Salahuddin Kokha, an official with the local chapter
of a Kurdish political party, said to AP, the attack
was meant to upset Kurdish claims of a strong
showing in elections in mainly Sunni Diyala
province.
"Terrorists want to destroy the happiness of the
Kurds over their election victory in Khanaqin,"
Kokha said. "All of those killed were civilians."
The official election results later showed that the
main Sunni bloc's list won the vote in Diyala with
21.1%, while the Kurds came in second with 17.2%.
Khanaqin sits on the border of Diyala and the
semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. Last summer, Iraqi
security forces and Kurdish troops nearly came to
blows in Khanaqin after Maliki sent soldiers there
to push out Kurdistan forces who for years had
secured the mainly Kurdish city. After weeks of
growing tension, a deal was struck to allow Kurdish
forces to return to Khanaqin.
Kurdistan's government says oil-rich Khanaqin should
be part of its semi-autonomous region, which it
hopes to expand in a referendum later this year. In
the meantime, Khanaqin and other so-called disputed
areas remain targets of Sunni Arab insurgents
opposed to Kurdish expansion and vowing to hold onto
land seized during ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's
efforts to "Arabize" the region.
The Diyala district, which includes a string of villages
and some of Iraq's oil reserves, is home to about
175,000 people, most of them Kurdish Shiites.
In June 2006, the local council of Khanaqin proposed
that the district be integrated into the autonomous
Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
During the Arabisation policy of Saddam Hussein in
the 1980s, a large number of Kurdish Shiites were
displaced by force from Khanaqin. They started
returning after the fall of Saddam in 2003.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to
the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city
and other disputed areas like Khanaqin.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
AP | aswataliraq info | Agencies
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