A suicide bomber blew himself up among a group of demonstrators complaining about lack of security in an ethnically disputed northern Iraqi city on Tuesday, in the deadliest in a spate of attacks that killed at least 23 people, authorities said.
Iraq is weathering its deadliest outburst of violence since 2008, with more than 2,000 people killed since the start of April. The bloodshed appears to be largely the work of resurgent Sunni militants such as al-Qaeda, feeding off Sunni discontent with the Shia-led government.
In Tuesday’s deadliest attack, at least one suicide bomber detonated his explosives up near Turkomen protesters who had set up tents in the city of TuzKhormato, according to Ali Abdul-Rahman, a spokesman for the Salahuddin provincial governor. He said the protesters were demanding tighter security for the community following a deadly car bombing Sunday.
The Tuesday bombing killed at least 11 people and wounded 42, according to Munir al-Qafili, the head of the city council in nearby Kirkuk.
Among those killed were two Turkomen leaders, Ahmed Abdel-Wahed and Ali Hashem Mukhtar Oglou, according to the United Nations mission to Iraq.
“Such attacks aim to heighten tensions in this particularly sensitive region of TuzKhurmatu,” UN envoy Martin Kobler said in a statement.
TuzKhormato sits in a band of territory contested by Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen about 200 kilometres north of Baghdad.
In another attack, five Shia pilgrims were killed after their bus was struck about 55 kilometres south of Baghdad while it was travelling between the towns of Musayyib and Iskandariyah, according to police and hospital officials.
Tens of thousands of Shia are gathering in the holy city of Karbala, 80km south of Baghdad, for the annual festival of Shabaniyah marking the anniversary of the birth of the ninth-century Shia leader known as the Hidden Imam.
Earlier Tuesday, gunmen in a speeding car fired on a church in Baghdad’s southeastern al-Amin neighbourhood, wounding three guards, police officers and a health official said.
In the evening, a bomb stuck to a minibus exploded in Baghdad's southeastern Zafaraniyah neighbourhood, a mainly Shia area, killing three passengers and wounding five, according to police and hospital officials.
