KIRKUK, Iraq: Two bombings in an Iraqi market and another in a cemetery as people buried victims of the first blasts killed 11 people on Friday, police and a doctor said.
The first two attacks targeting a livestock market in Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometers (110 miles) north of Baghdad, killed eight people and wounded 25.
As people gathered at a cemetery to bury the victims of the market blasts, another bomb went off, killing three people and wounding two.
Militants in Iraq often attack places where crowds of people gather, including markets, cafes and mosques, in an effort to cause maximum casualties.
A number of funerals have also been attacked this year.
Friday’s attacks came a day after three suicide bombers targeted Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad and south of the capital, killing at least 36 people, as militants shot dead a family of five west of the city.
Muhanad Mohammed, a journalist who worked for both foreign and Iraqi media, was among those killed in one of the suicide bombings.
He was the seventh journalist to be killed in Iraq in less than three months.
Violence has surged this year to levels not seen since 2008, when Iraq was just emerging from a brutal sectarian conflict.
More people were killed in the first eight days of this month than in all of December last year.
And more than 6,600 people have been killed since the beginning of 2013, according to AFP figures based on security and medical sources.
Iraq market and cemetery bombs kill 11
Iraq market and cemetery bombs kill 11
Iran says any US attack including limited strikes would be ‘act of aggression’
- Foreign ministry spokesman said any state would react to an act of aggression as part of its inherent right of self-defense
- Trump said Friday he was considering a limited strike if Tehran did not reach a deal with the US
TEHRAN: Iran said Monday that any US attack, including limited strikes, would be an “act of aggression” that would precipitate a response, after President Donald Trump said he was considering a limited strike on Iran.
“And with respect to your first question concerning the limited strike, I think there is no limited strike,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a briefing in Tehran attended by an AFP journalist.
“An act of aggression would be regarded as an act of aggression. Period. And any state would react to an act of aggression as part of its inherent right of self-defense ferociously so that’s what we would do.”
Trump said Friday he was considering a limited strike if Tehran did not reach a deal with the United States.
“I guess I can say I am considering that,” he replied following a question from reporters.
The two countries concluded a second round of indirect talks in Switzerland on Tuesday under Omani mediation, against the backdrop of a major US military build-up in the region.
Further talks, confirmed by Iran and Oman but not by the United States, are scheduled for Thursday.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is leading the negotiations for Iran, while the United States is represented by envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump is wondering why Iran has not “capitulated” in the face of Washington’s military deployment, Witkoff said in an interview with Fox News broadcast on Sunday.
Baqaei responded Monday by saying that Iranians had never capitulated at any point in their history.
