 Carnage ... Iraqi soldiers secure the site of a bomb attack / Reuters |
- Co-ordinated attacks in Kirkuk
- Most Iraqis feel `unsafe`
- Dozens injured
COORDINATED car bombs and mortar attacks killed 15 people and wounded dozens more in the ethnically volatile Iraqi oil hub of Kirkuk.
Another eight people were killed in violence elsewhere in the war-ravaged country, highlighting the relentless bloodshed four years since the March 20 US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
With tens if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead and nearly 3500 foreign troops killed since then, a rare opinion poll of Iraqis said they felt increasingly pessimistic and insecure about their future.
The poll by BBC and US broadcaster ABC News said only 26 per cent of respondents felt safe in their own neighbourhoods and 86 per cent expressed concern about someone in their household being a victim of violence.
About 78 per cent opposed the presence of foreign forces and 69 per cent said their presence made the security situation worse.
A BBC survey in November 2005 painted a much brighter picture, with 71 per cent saying things were good in their lives.
Since then Iraq has been torn by a vicious sectarian conflict that has left two million people as refugees abroad and another 1.8 million displaced in the country.
The biggest of the attacks in Kirkuk, a car bomb near two mosques, killed 10 people and wounded eight, police Colonel Taha Salaheddin said.
The bomb went off in central Kirkuk`s Sector 90 district which houses the two mosques, one Shiite and one Sunni, as well as the emergency police command, Salaheddin said adding 10 cars and 20 shops were burnt.
The second car bomb went off in south Kirkuk`s Ras Domeez market near a branch of the Islamic Bank, killing five people and wounding 26, he said.
Of the five killed, four were policemen whose patrol was passing at the time.
The mortar attack near the city`s civil defence office wounded one civilian, Salaheddin said, while the fourth car bomb targeted a senior officer from Saddam Hussein`s former army and destroyed a communication tower but caused no casualties.
Over the past few months, insurgents have stepped up attacks in Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed city claimed by both Arabs and Kurds.
Baghdad also saw brutal violence despite a large-scale security crackdown in the capital which has put 90,000 US and Iraqi troops on the streets to curb the bloodletting.
A bomb at the entrance of the Shiite Hussain Abu Ruh mosque in central Baghdad`s Shorja district killed five people and wounded 25 others, a security official said.
Three people were killed when gunmen opened fire on them in the Shiite city of Hilla, south of Baghdad, police said.
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