LATEST: Suicide Bomber Kills 16 Mourners in Baghdad
SUMMARY: At least 65 people were killed and at least 60 wounded by two bombs at a funeral in a Shiite neighborhood in Iraq’s capital Baghdad on Saturday afternoon.
Police said a first car bomb went off near the funeral tent in Sadr City on Saturday afternoon. A suicide bomber driving a car then blew himself up near the tent, and a third explosion came as police, ambulances and firefighters were gathering at the scene
Earlier in the day, Four suicide bombers stormed a headquarters for police commandos in the city of Beiji in northern Iraq, killing seven policemen and wounding 21 others.
Guards killed one suicide bomber while the three other bombers were able to set off their explosive belts inside the compound.
Near Mosul in northern Iraq, gunmen shot and killed two prison guards after storming their houses, while in the city, two soldiers were killed and four others were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their convoy.
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Suicide Bomber Kills 16 Mourners in Baghdad
A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a tent filled with mourners in the Doura district of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 16 people and wounding 35.
The attack in the predominantly Sunni area follows Saturday’s triple bombing that killed 85 people in the largely Shia district of Sadr City.
Sniper Critically Wounds Israeli Soldier in West Bank
A sniper shot and killed an Israeli soldier at a checkpoint near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron Sunday evening.
The shooting follows the murder of another soldier on Saturday.
Has Murder of Israeli Soldier Undermined Peace Talks with Palestinian Authority?
Israeli ministers, reacting to the killing of a soldier over the weekend, have said it proves that Palestinians have no intention of reaching a peace agreement with Israel.
“You don’t make peace with terrorists who throw the bodies of soldiers into a pit; you fight them mercilessly,” Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said.
Bennett continued, “The murder meant to free a terrorist, to free a soldier of Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas], once again shows who our partner is.”
Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, who recently called for the annulment of the Oslo Accords in The New York Times, said the murder is the result of “ongoing incitement from the Palestinian leadership.”
He said that Abbas “encourages such shocking acts by making celebratory remarks about the current peace talks while continuing to pay stipends to jailed terrorists. Twenty years after Oslo, the Palestinians haven’t abandoned terror.”
Tunisia — Mediators Urge Leading Government Party to Accept Political “Road Map”
Mediators seeking a resolution to Tunisia’s protracted political tensions urged the Ennadha Party, the leading group in the Government coalition, to fully accept their road map for the way forward.
The Ennahda party had issued a statement on Friday saying it accepted the blueprint for the formation of a government of independents and a national dialogue to finalise a new Constitution and clear the way for elections.
But the mediators, who include the powerful UGTT trade union confederation and the employers’ organisation Utica, said on Saturday that the party’s response had “ambiguities” and failed to clearly endorse all elements of the plan.
“We consider that the Ennahda statement is ambiguous and allows for manoeuvres, interpretations and multiple readings,” said UGTT Secretary General Houcine Abassi.
“We can’t accept their agreement, as half of the roadmap is not given a precise response,” he told a news conference.
The opposition has yet to give any public response to the blueprint, but Abassi said it had given its agreement.
The plan sets a three-week deadline for the formation of a cabinet of independents to replace the current Government after the launch of a national dialogue between the two sides.
It sets a four-week deadline for the adoption of a new electoral law, the announcement of a timetable for fresh elections, and the completion of a long-delayed draft constitution.
In its response, Ennahda gave a tighter deadline for the completion of the draft charter but did not spell out its position on the timetable for a new government.
Prompt replacement of the existing administration has been a persistent demand of the mainly secular opposition throughout the crisis triggered by the 25 July assassination of opposition MP Mohamed Brahmi, an attack that was blamed on hardline Islamists.
The opposition says Ennahda has failed to rein in jihadists, whose influence has grown since the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran president Zine El Abidine Beni Ali, and has not improved economic conditions in Tunisia.
Turkey: Attackers Fire Rockets at Police Buildings
Attackers fired three rockets at two police buildings in Turkey’s capital Ankara on Friday evening.
One of the buildings was damaged, but there were no casualties. One attacker was killed and one injured in a subsequent clash with police near the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) campus. Others escaped.
Police have blamed the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front.
The assault was in the Dikmen Valley area, where the Ankara local government has launched several controversial urban renewal projects.
