Suicide Bombing in Park, Attacks Kill 36 in Iraq

Local Editor

A suicide bomber attacked a park in northern Baghdad crowded by cafe- and restaurant-goers Friday night, the bloodiest attack in a day of violence that killed at least 36 people across the country, authorities said.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in violence during the past few months, raising fears Iraq could see a new round of widespread bloodshed.

The suicide bomber struck a park in the Qahira neighborhood of Baghdad late Friday night, an area popular with locals, police said. The bomber detonated his explosives in a crowd of people, killing at least 26 people and wounding 55.

There was no claim of responsibility for Friday's suicide bombing. However, al-Qaeda's Iraq is frequently blamed for attacks targeting civilians.
Later in the night, gunmen in Baghdad's northern Azamiyah neighborhood killed four men walking down a street, an army officer and a medical official said. The motive behind the shooting wasn't immediately clear.

Elsewhere in the country, police said gunmen broke into a house of a merchant at dawn Friday in the northern town of Dujail, killing him, his wife and elderly mother. Authorities said the motive behind that attack wasn't immediately unclear.

Meanwhile, two police officers said bombs exploded near Sunni mosques in two neighborhoods in Baghdad as worshippers were leaving after Friday's sermon, killing three people and wounding 18.

Police officers and medical officials confirmed the casualty figures from the attacks Friday. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release the information to journalists.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team