14 Officials Killed in Blistering Violence Across Iraq

[tekisui]

Source: New York Times

BAGHDAD — A burst of violence across Iraq on Tuesday claimed the lives of 14 people, most related to what appears to be a campaign of assassinations aimed at officials amid the country’s extended political crisis.

The two top vote-getters during Iraq’s Parliamentary election in March, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, met Tuesday, but there was no immediate announcement that the two had broken new ground in their impasse over the formation of the next government.

Mr. Allawi’s political party won two more seats than Mr. Maliki’s party, but neither won enough to form a government on its own. Among the unresolved issues is whether Mr. Maliki will continue as prime minister.

The targets across the country on Tuesday included two police officers in the city of Baji, in northern Iraq, who died after a car rigged with explosives was detonated on the main street as a police convoy drove by, the authorities said.

The bomb exploded just outside a crowded marketplace shortly before 10 a.m. In all, seven people were killed; 17 others were injured.

Lt. Col. Dawoon al-Sahin of the local police said he believed the bomb may have been aimed at one of the slain officers, Lt. Col. Hussein al-Qaisi, who handled police personnel issues.

In Baghdad, a staff member of the capital’s provincial council who focused on social welfare programs, was killed after an adhesive bomb that had been attached to his vehicle exploded as he passed through a security checkpoint, the authorities said. Two police officers were wounded in the attack.

more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/world/middleeast/30baghdad.html