Suicide bombs kill 21 and wound 34 in Shiite neighbourhood of Baghdad
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  • Three suicide bombings, in the largely Shiite neighborhood of Shula on May 23 killed at least 21 people and wounded more than 50 others. US soldiers, Iraqi police officers, and members of the US-allied Awakening Councils were targeted. The attacks followed a car bombing near a popular restaurant in the western part of Baghdad that killed up to 40 people.

    Awakening Council members, Sunni insurgents who have been allied with the US, had in recent times become a primary target of insurgent groups operating in Iraq. These attacks were the first major attack since a series of explosions in the last week of April left more than 160 dead. Most of these attacks took place in predominately Shiite areas, raising fears that insurgents were trying to incite sectarian violence. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had blamed loyalists from the government of Saddam Hussein for the April attacks1.

    In other development, a suicide car bomb struck a US military patrol in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul on May 21 wounding at least 34 bystanders.

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