E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Ako Rasheed / Reuters
A wounded person is carried by soldiers at the site of a suicide bomb attack in Kirkuk, Iraq, on Feb. 3, 2013.
KIRKUK, Iraq - A suicide bomber driving a car and gunmen disguised in police uniforms killed at least 33 people in the Iraqi city Kirkuk on Sunday when they tried to storm the police headquarters.
It was the third major attack in several weeks in or near the northern city, an ethnically mixed area of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen at the heart of a dispute over oil and land between Baghdad's central government and the autonomous Kurdistan region.
"A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives hit the entrance of the headquarters and after the blast gunmen in explosive vests attacked with AK-47s and grenades, but the guards killed them," a police official said.
The huge car bomb blast tore into the police directorate's concrete facade, destroyed cars outside and left bodies under rubble at nearby government offices. Police said there were at least two gunmen.
Several armed groups are active in Kirkuk, and Sunni Islamist insurgents tied to al-Qaida often attack security forces in an attempt to undermine Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government and stoke sectarian tensions.
Last month a suicide bomber disguised as a mourner killed at least 26 at a funeral at a Shiite mosque in the nearby city of Tuz Khurmato, and days earlier a suicide bomber driving a truck killed 25 in an attack on a political party headquarters in Kirkuk, 105 miles north of the capital Baghdad.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
The work of death continues, and more senseless killing.Families tonight will mourn the loss of those they loved, taken too soon, because others found a reason to hate them.Instead of finding a reason to get along.The disease of hatred and intolerance is so contagious.It seems the only cure is death and destruction of those harboring it. Until everything is wiped clean with blood.And the cries of those who have lost loved ones is all that is remains. Except, that will never happen. Hatred is found everywhere, intolerance as well.Imagine how few humans would be left if all who hated were taken.
American involvment with the violence in Iraq is just 1 chapter in this story.The story of violence in this region has been written for thousands of years and has not changed much since it started.
Yes, hatred is everywhere .... as well as the love for oil. To the powers that be, these incidents are just the cost of doing business. You can be guaranteed, if there were no oil in Iraq or the financial gain of running a pipeline through Afghanistan to the Meditteranean, there would be no U.S. occupation or interest.
..and yet you continue to drive a car, using the fuel oil that we buy from them. Hypocrite.
eazyray, where does your gasoline come from? Did you spot check it at the border?
betcha, betcha, the mastermind of this attack was at home bangin' his wife!
All the billions of dollars and american lives lost over there didn't seem to acomplish nothing. Maybe its time the US stays on this side of the pond.
And...don't forget the most important point...it is all driven by mindless religion...world history is dominated by torture, wars etc...and religion has been the driving force...bible thumpers unite!! (sarcasm)
I can't believe the Kurds let this happen, KIRKUK Iraq is such a nice place. I mean where in the heck can you just go and purchase an AK47 in the local market for what equals $15 or for a similar price or a bit more more get an RPG. If they would just give the Kurds their own state Iraqi Kurdistan then the kurds would handle this type of stuff. Like said above Many of these Countries/Regions need to be governed by an "Iron Fist" or dictator type leader. I think it was a mistake removing/overthrowing Hussein, Qaddafi and Mubarak. Egypt was actually a decent place for a western to visit years ago and it's to bad that the rebels had destroyed much of Eqypt's ancient history
And it is still the fault of the Zionist Crusaders and not the peace loving Muslims.. For years they said the violence would stop once we left their homeland but big surprise it is getting worse..
Toolittle2late, it is not driven by religion. It is driven by power, control and greed. Religions are just excuses, distorted and interpreted with subversive goals.
It never seems to end - tragic
''The more things change, the more they remain the same,'' so goes the old adage. It would seem that the new''liberated'' Iraq is in disarray more now than before the ''Bush/Cheney War.'' Saddam Hussein, no doubt a brutal dictator, ruled the country with an ''iron fist'' which largely prevented this sort of sectarian violence much like Tito did in the former Yugoslavia.
How good is YOUR democratically selected "LEADER" of Iraq?
Yup erwache......Iraq was better off when the iron fisted dictator was the only one killing thousands of people a month all over Iraq to ensure his rule would continue....he did this with his Republican Guard (yeah, the same 'elite' troops we kicked the hell out of in less than 10 days over two wars), gas, starvation and living an oppulent life while his people suffered in squalor. The Iraqi people are not fighting the Americans - they are still embroiled in a conflict of centuries. We only hear about it now because they are a free people thanks to President Bush. Oh, and there is no occupation of Iraq, just in case you missed the news of a TOTAL pullout by the US in December 2011 (except for the embassy compound security). I know because I followed the last convoy into Camp Liberty as the BIAP was cleared.
Uh huh. Yeah. And, pray tell, how's ousting Saddam working out? And how'd ousting Gaddafi work out? And how'd the bombing-invading-and-occupying thingy dingy work out?
*eyes roll*
Fact is, those dictators kept each other in check over there. The uncomfortable truth is this: some people DO, in fact, NEED to be ruled with an iron fist. What's happening in the Middle East now is all the proof you need to see that it's true.
"It was the third major attack in several weeks in or near the northern city, an ethnically mixed area of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen at the heart of a dispute over oil and land between Baghdad's central government and the autonomous Kurdistan region."
Muslims can't tolerate Muslims and killings can be on tribal lines or whatever invented divisions are there!
HOTTICKET - It is working out pretty good. Because now the dictators aren't the ones killing thousands of people monthly in their countries and living life high on the hog. There is actually an economy booming in Iraq. People are in the streets, going to stores, eating in restaurants and living life. Sure, there are problems with infrastructure and supply lines - but the number of people who have died in Iraq over the past 20 months are a result of extremists not wanting the economic strides to be made.
If you add up the number of Iraqi's who have died since June of 2010 you will find the number to be far less than the monthly total deaths under Saddam Hussein. To compare where they are now to where they were in 2003 before the invasion and the ousting of SH - their lives are improving. This would not have been possible with a dictator in office raping the public coffers, killing people and oppressing the nation into oblivion so that they could live an oppulent life with money, riches and control greater than the mind can comprehend.
Looking forward to the name calling and additional eye-rolling to be caused by my post.....because many who post here have not had to ever fight for their freedoms, liberty and life in the name of bettering themselves or humanity.
Go ahead, tear my post apart, but before you do come to Iraq and work and live with these very gracious and loving people who just want to have what we have in the U.S. Don't base your 'beliefs' on what you hear in the news and from people who have never left the confines of the U.S. to see that we have the greatest country in the world - and others really do want to be just like us.
OK American politicians, let's hear the old war cry, "They just want democracy" , "He's killing his own people."
Come on American politicians, fess up, war is a money maker for a few select friends & companies.
You bet!
Bush could not locate Iraq on the map; Biden can locate it; Hillary knows that there are Israel and Saudi Arabia on the map and some more "experts"!
Iraqi wars were profitable business for some and disasters for the rest.
Now sanctions on Iranian oil is becoming another profitable business for some.
There will not be much shortages for fighting elections!
Why don't the FORTY THIEVES go into Iraq again to PREVENT these sort of attacks? They got what they wanted - FAT OIL CONTRACTS - and left. As long as the OIL is flowing WESTWARD they don't give a dmn about what happens in Iraq. Don't stop the WESTWARD flow of OIL or else.........
Can't the FORTY THIEVES conjure up some NASTY EXCUSE for once again invading and occupying Iraq and murdering its people. And by the way Iraq WAS selling its OIL and getting RICH before your BLOODY OCCUPATION.
Seems to me Iraq has long had tribal feuds, even when Sadam was in charge. Also if Iraq was so rich in oil why did they invade Kuwait to gain control of it and it's oil.
Bush accomplished mission.
"suicide bomber disguised as a mourner killed at least 26 at a funeral at a Shiite mosque in the nearby city of Tuz Khurmato"
Muslims are back to business of killings!
The most we will do now for Iraq is sell them more weapons. I’m glad they are in control of their crazy people anyways and their not running the show. I don’t think we can afford to help them anymore and they don’t need help too. I guess the Shia and Sunni Muslims will just fight. We need to get rid of all the al-Qaeda leaders, that would slow down the Sunni attacks. What do people think the Middle East and Africa will look like in 10 years with religion and government with the countries in these areas? It might be a lot more Sunni then Shia. That might be why Iran wants to show a fighters face. They pick on Israel because if they start saying wrong about the Sunni’s, something bad will happen. I can’t believe no one Shia will say anything bad about the Sunni’s. They fight sometimes but you never hear them talk about each other. That sounds like some good news is the Sunni's and the Shia's talking bad to each other.
I have been saying for years now that we need to create (by international treaty) a universal standard for all religion in our world, which in turn requires all religion in our world to fully respects modern day human rights, civil rights, and internationally accepted mental health standards, and all countries throughout our world need to be required to bring all religions within their national boundaries into full compliance with this new international standard for all religion. After that, our civilized world needs to jointly impose a Cold War policy of containment against any nation which continues to harbor dangerous religion within its national boundaries.
I have also warned the entire world for years now that all three of these dangerous ET designed and installed terminal religious "End Time" belief systems known as the Abrahamic religions were covertly designed and installed by outside offensive totalitarian ETs, who repeatedly masqueraded as Divinity toward mankind over a period of several thousand Earth years. (I know this because I personally lived at Wright Patterson Air Force base from 1951 to 1953, while my grandfather (Colonel Charles Faulkner Carter) was second in command there, and he was personally involved in the background investigation into the Roswell incident of 1947.) All three of these dangerous "End Time" Abrahamic religions are key biocybernetic warfare components of a larger PWMD, or Program Weapon of Mass Destruction, which these outside offensive totalitarian ETs are hoping to use one day (soon) to crash and explode our emerging human world in a final programmed cataclysm of global warfare fueled with WMDs, known as the Christian Apocalypse or World War III.
These ETs want to use their (now) eminent domain rights of military intervention in our sector of the Milky Way galaxy to move in on precious celestial real estate and take it over on the heels of WWIII, with the ultimate intent of eventually taking our precious world and solar system completely away, after supposedly trying for a thousand intervening years following their military intervention to salvage or redeem mankind from their "hopelessly violent ways", while once more masquerading as Divinity toward mankind, this time as the returning Christ or Messiah.
The real "Gospel" or "Good News" is that mankind potentially has countless millions (even billions) of years of growth, development and expansion ahead of them, so long as they don't fall for these terminal religious "End Time" belief systems known as the Abrahamic religions. Please listen before it is too late for you here on Earth, human race! - Rick Carter
(People, in the final analysis I really don't care what people want to religiously believe, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, or keep anyone from believing what they want to believe. People could choose to worship turnips for all that I care. But if the human race doesn't get very busy defusing this ET designed and installed PWMD real soon, it stands to (once again) destroy our entire world and eventually render the entire human race extinct here on this beloved home planet we like to call Earth.) - RC
Chicago 1920's and today. My granddad saved news papers, reading this is like reading the news from the 1920's, so what was the question ? Gangsters, by a different name, different reason, but same old killing. Say it's not the same, it is the same.
Yeah, Bush sure created a democracy in Iraq, we lost nearly 5000 of our warriors on his lies.
Funny how when Bush was in office, it was unpatriotic to criticize the president. Now calling him a Muslim-Communist-Fascist gets you a seat on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. It's almost as if the Republican Party is full of @!$%#.
your right G.W Bu@!$%# made HUGE MISTAKES.. Not only we lost as you said 5k of our boys
WE ARE NEARL BANKRUPT DUE to iraqies wars we lost around $2 trillions
we caved into the pressure by those god DAMN Neocons/zionist BASTARDS
Nice to see Lefty posting his lies, tripe and crap here this morning
Mission accomplished B.O. Since you pulled our troops out of Iraq things have gotten so much better with all the suicide bombings and the resurgence of al-Qaeda. I know our troops feel in their hearts the war in Iraq was worth it, but how many of them died in vain because they were pulled out of Iraq too soon? B.O.'s policies have no rhyme or reason to them other than they are just plain stupid.
Should NEVER have been there to start with--at least the 2nd time around for the ''Bush/Cheney War'' which was initiated in part because ''Saddam tried to murder my Daddy'' and as a ''smokescreen'' to thwart attention from the real culprit: Osama bin Laden. So much for welcoming the liberators with flowers.
Lets talk facts, we went to iraq to look for WMDs which was not there, we kill saddam and they now have democracy. So explain to me why we still need to be there? 4500 Soldiers died in vein and i dont think it was because we pulled out too soon. The terrorist was in Afghanistan by the why but nice try
As I recall Iraq's parliament would not approve a Status of Forces Agreement. If the coalition forces remained in Iraq without a SOFA they would have done so subject to Iraq's legal system.
To me, it was Iraq's parliament that wanted the coalition forces to leave.
So yes, mission accomplished, Iraq took democratic responsibility for Iraq.
Oh by the way, Afghanistan's legislature may want to assess the need for the International community to assist with security beyond 2014.
You're full of sh*t. This type of violence was going on long before we left Iraq. But all you nut job "foreign policy experts" can do is blame Obama. What a clown act you people are.
Oh, not to worry, just another example of Obama and H. Clinton's demacracy in another part of the world. They will come up with another plan, Oh I forgot Clinton is out now. Kerry and Obama will have to tell those people how to live and run their country.
Yea your right, lets blame Obama for that war lol. You people are funny
Charles, did u know Obama just gave the Muslim bro hood tanks and jet fighters? Learn who this guy is and u will u understand the anger. Unless u are a terrorist lover as well. Keep it real bro.
Oh yea thrill22, military aid to Egypt just started with Obama. And he personally gave the weapons to Egypt. What idiots you people are. Totally delusional and stupid.
at this point I think only God can bring peace. Whoever God is. I also believe man has lost his moral compass.
Pax Americana turns out to be a real bitch everywhere it squats to pee, doesn't it? Do you wonder how much of the "American Way" we can spread around before stepping in it begins to tell the world it's not exactly what it's trumped up to be?
Baa wont be long there will be suicide bombers running around the states, surprised it hasnt already happened.
Surprised? You should be happy it doesnt happen here and i pray it stays that way
Well we keep killing them in one place and training and arming them some where else , some body explain that to us , or let that Dummy McCain and his two stooges , Graham and Lieberman explain that , they are arming them in Syria and Libya , and killing them in Mali and Afghanistan , till our government is serious about this war on terrorists BS , we will never kill them and get rid of them .
Well it's a good thing that our soldiers (including my husband) spent so much time there, away from their wives and children to better their world. Not to mention all of our men who were killed and maimed. Yeah, it was worth it ...
(For all the idiots ... that was SARCASM)
Thank you for your family's sacrifice. As you probably know, some problems are beyond the ability of humans to solve. The knot of tribal rivalry, mis-guided religious fervor, corruption, and competition for land and petroleum money stand as obstacles to peace in southwest Asia. Ousting a dictator and regime only created an opportunity for another form of government. Iraq now has an opportunity as a democratic nation. There is no guarantee Iraq will succeed in its democratic experiment, but it has the opportunity. Thank you again for your family's sacrifice.
I should mention that it is a strangely linked series of event that lead to the US lead coalition involvement in Iraq. Had the US not been attacked on September 11, 2001 and had not Saddam Hussein antagonized the international community and ignored the UN sanctions for the previous ten years the US probably would not have invaded Iraq.
My opinion, Saddam Hussein had positioning himself as the opponent to the western imperialist and would support those who challenged the western powers. In so positioning himself, he became a target in the war on terrorism.
in readong several reports overseas... most ppl. in America DO NOT Understand
the true stories.. the Kurds were nomadicks.. they were giving place in Iraq
to live.. and now the Kurds/ turds are cuasing troubles ever sense the u.s
pointed the kutd guy jalal talabani who was a terrerist for YEARS.. He is not
looked at in iraq as a' president' but a puppet for the west..he and his family
stole over $85 BILLIONS of $ his kids live in washington d.c and australia
driving merceds benz,ferraris and live in multi million $ homes..so you now
see where the iraqies HATE the kurds..
George Bush, the great stratigizer! The only people that come out on this deal was Dick Cheney and Haliburton! Handed the mess over to Iran on a silver platter, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed, trillions wasted and all we won was another round of tribal ethnic infighting. There is a bloodbath coming to that country with George Bush's name all over it. Everyone said the county would disintegrate into an ethnic and religious blood bath after the last U.S. Troop left...
Just curious (I ask this question again and again and again on "threads" like this), but what does the person who wrote LOLOLOLOLOLOL believe they accomplished? What do people who resort to ad hominem personal attack believe they prove? Why both to insult - or, for that matter, compliment someone who is only a string of letters on a monitor screen? Do any of you folks ever actually analyse or assess the matter that would otherwise be in question?
Does no one see the (now nearly insane - or already so) character of the society and nation reflected in what is said on "threads" like these? You haven't related the way the country is proceeding and the way Barak Obama was elected to the woman who walks into a mall pool or into wall, or drives her car into a building, while talking on a cell phone or "texting?" You don't relate the hyper-neurotic babbling concerning every news story with the nation that has "dwarfed its men" (J.S. Mill) and wants to put women in combat?
You don't notice the parity between stories having to do with war, mass shootings, disease epidemics, death on the highway, and the like - and what this or that female celebrity is wearing, who's "doing" whom in Hollywood, and absolutely anything having to do with sex?
You don't see any connection between the nation's decline and the rise of feminism? Our economic death spiral and post-modern liberalism?
Well, see if you can stop talking on the cell or texting long enough to consider it all. That way, the pool or wall you walk into won't be the end of your country.
dude you make zero sense.just stay in the back of the woods. do ur moonshining and SHUT UP.
Nouri al Maliki now has Iraq totally under control. The US pulled out last year and things have gone seriously downhill since then, but I guess the Iraqis are used to killing each other on a regular basis.
U.S. Made major,major mistake when they were PRESSURED by those neocons/zionists
into the WRONG War to 'protect' that worthless welfare state of Israel mainly
AND in the process and NOT EVEN AWARE.. That we EMPOWERED Iraq
remember iraq was iran's #1 enemies and your Al maliki buddy take his order
NOT from d.c but From Tehran,Iran WE GOT PUNKED.Duped BIG TIME
The neocons idea of freedom in the middle east by invading Iraq, seems they now have their "freedom" the whole middle east most countries have exploded it back fired, maybe they did that on purpose they wanted it to happen.
kurds just like the Israelis they are MAJOR Liability to the West and specilly America
kurds are ungratful and they are users.. they stole the northen part that has lots
of oil with the help of the west.. and guess what the kurds are shipping ALL of
that oil CHEAP to you got China.. the kurds are buildg. large buildgs in northen Iraq
they are now fighting Turkey,Iraqies,Iranians just to name few.. just watch in few
yrs. the u.s will be back to sqr. fighting wars for THE Kurds. spending OUR Tax $
losing more american lives.. oy vay
Let's see how the great government of Iraq handles THIS/THEIR problem. You'll soon learn that man's one world government will NOT work. I sure didn't vote for it,......did you ?
MURDER bombers. Call it what it is. That is the intent ... to MURDER. Not to commit suicide. That is secondary to the reign of terror they do.
Stop labeling them as suicide bombers. They achieve martyrdom that way.
They are cold blooded animals. MURDERERS.
Man it is a good thing we occupied that country and we lost so many of U.S. boys and girls. You can sure tell we changed the way they think over there. Yeah. Take that you mohammed M.F.ers