KIRKUK, Iraq, 15 July 2006 — Gunmen ambushed an Iraqi Army checkpoint in northern Iraq yesterday, killing 12 soldiers and wounding one, in one of the deadliest single attacks in months against the US-trained Iraqi forces. In more bloodshed that has pushed Iraq close to sectarian civil war, bomb and mortar rounds aimed at mosques killed 14 people in and near Baghdad, while in the south gunmen sprayed a minibus with machine-gunfire, killing five Shiite pilgrims.
Scores have been killed in sectarian violence between the Shiite majority and Sunnis over the past week in Baghdad and Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki has urged Iraqis to rally behind his national reconciliation plan as their last chance for peace.
Gunmen in four cars and armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns attacked an army checkpoint in the town of Rashad near Kirkuk, 250 km north of Baghdad, Iraqi army Maj. Gen. Anwar Hamad Ameen said. “This area is a stronghold for Takfirists and terrorists,” Ameen told Reuters.
A bomb struck a Sunni mosque in Baghdad after Friday prayers, killing 14 people and wounding five, defying a driving ban aimed at preventing such attacks, while mortars barraged a Shiite mosque north of the capital.
The attack against the Sunni mosque occurred about 2 p.m. as worshippers were leaving after religious services in northern Baghdad, police Lt. Mohammed Khayoun said, adding that the bomb was planted near the door of the mosque.
Earlier yesterday, five mortar rounds fell near the Shiite Imam Al-Hussein Mosque in Balad Ruz, 70 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding six, provincial police said. The strikes against the mosques were the latest in a week of tit for tat sectarian attacks, although violence appeared to ebb yesterday. Authorities also have imposed a weekly four hour driving ban starting at 11 a.m. to prevent car bombs that have frequently targeted the main Islamic weekly religious services.
