A wave of seemingly coordinated attacks swept through Baghdad's neighbourhoods on Thursday, leaving dozens dead and many more injured. This, in the wake of heightened sectarian tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite communities, as the country's fraglile coalition government led by Nouri al-Maliki, threatens to implode. It's perhaps not the picture of stability the United States would like to portray just days after it withdrew its remaining troops.
A mass grave containing the bodies of at least 40 men was found by Iraqi security forces Friday in Dujail, north of Baghdad. An interior ministry official said that the bodies were mainly those of taxi drivers. Three men have been arrested.
A bomb targeting a passing French diplomatic convoy on Monday injured seven Iraqis, including four guards and three passers-by, an interior ministry official said. The bomb went off near the French ambassador's residence.
A string of bomb attacks targeting police in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk killed at least 29 people and injured scores more, security officials said Thursday. The violence is the worst to have hit the country in nearly two months.
At least 35 people died when a car bomb exploded at a funeral in Baghdad Thursday, causing angry crowds to lash out at the police over a lack of security. The ensuing clashes resulted in an exchange of fire between the police and angry citizens.
It was a highly symbolic attack against Iraq’s Christian community: on October 31st, during an All-Saints-Day Mass, a group of al-Qaeda gunmen attacked the church of Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad, killing 46 and injuring dozens more. France 24 met Iraqi Christians, to hear eyewitness accounts from survivors of this atrocity.
Christian communities have existed in the Arab world for centuries and make up the religious minority in many countries, such as Jordan, the West Bank, Egypt and Iraq. Already fragile, these groups are increasingly subject to persecution. For many, life is becoming too hard in their native lands and the only option is to leave.
Christian communities have existed in the Arab world for centuries and make up the religious minority in many countries, such as Jordan, the West Bank, Egypt and Iraq. Already fragile, these groups are increasingly subject to persecution. For many, life is becoming too hard in their native lands and the only option is to leave.
More than eight months after Iraq’s inconclusive elections, rival political blocs reached a power-sharing agreement nailing the top three government posts, Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani said Thursday.
Libération reports on the US elections with the headline “They want to destroy Obama”. France’s main left-wing daily is horrified at the language being used by Tea Party candidates who are currently gaining huge attention in the mid-term vote. That’s one of the top stories in today’s French press review: MONDAY, 2ND NOVEMBER 2010
