Wave of Iraq attacks linked to al-Qaeda claims at least 71

Bombers and gunmen seen as linked to al-Qaeda killed at least 71 people yesterday in a day-long series of assaults on markets…

Bombers and gunmen seen as linked to al-Qaeda killed at least 71 people yesterday in a day-long series of assaults on markets, a textile factory, checkpoints and other sites across Iraq.

The attacks in widely dispersed locations, from Baghdad to towns to the south, north and west of the capital, appeared to be aimed at showing Iraqis that Sunni Islamist insurgents were still a potent force even after battlefield defeats in recent weeks.

“Despite strong strikes that broke al-Qaeda, there are some cells still working, attempting to prove their existence and their influence,” said Baghdad’s security spokesman Maj Gen Qassim al-Moussawi, calling the attacks “hysterical”.

In the bloodiest incident, two suicide car bombers drove into the entrance of a textile factory as workers were ending a shift in the town of Hilla, 62km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, a regional office of the national media centre said.

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At least 35 people died and 136 were wounded, hospital and police officials said.

A third bomb exploded as police and medics rushed to the scene, causing additional casualties.

Earlier, a suicide bomber driving a car killed 13 and wounded 40 in a marketplace in al-Suwayra, 50km southeast of Baghdad, an official with the Wasit provincial council said.

At dawn in Baghdad, gunmen with silencers killed at least seven Iraqi soldiers and policemen when they attacked six checkpoints, while bombs planted at three others wounded several more, an interior ministry source said.

Further attacks in Anbar took the death toll to at least 71, with more than 200 wounded.

The attacks reaffirmed the vigour of the insurgency, which was weakened after government forces recently compromised al-Qaeda’s network, including an April raid that killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri, al-Qaeda in Iraq’s leader.

Violence in Iraq has subsided since the height of sectarian strife in 2006-07, but the March election has fuelled tensions. A cross-sectarian alliance led by former prime minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shia, gained strong support from Sunnis to take a two-seat lead in the parliamentary vote.