DHULUIYAH: Four people were killed and 13 others wounded on Wednesday when a suicide bomber targeted a US-allied militia leader at a mosque north of the Iraqi capital, security officials told media. The explosion happened in Dhuluiyah, 70 kilometres (45 miles) from Baghdad, said a police colonel, speaking on condition of anonymity, giving a final toll of four dead and 13 wounded."It's an action of Al-Qaeda because only this organisation is committing suicide attacks," he said. An interior ministry source earlier said that five people had been killed. The attacker detonated his explosives-filled vest during evening prayers at around 8 pm (1700 GMT) in the Sunni town, in an attempt to kill Mullah Nadhem, a local US-allied Sahwa "Awakening" leader, the colonel said. Nadhem was not present but his brother was wounded in the attack. A bomb at the mosque last year also failed to kill Nadhem although he was wounded. Violence has fallen sharply over the past two years as US and Iraqi forces have allied with the Sahwa, local tribes and former insurgents, to bring calm to vast swathes of the country. But attacks remain common in some areas.
BEIRUT: Thousands of people converged Saturday on central Beirut to mark the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese former premier Rafiq Hariri.Waving Lebanese flags and carrying pictures of the slain leader, men, women and children gathered under sunny skies in Martyr's Square where members of the parliamentary majority were to address the crowd. The rally comes as final preparations are underway in The Hague for the launch of the international tribunal set up to bring Hariri's killers to justice. It also comes as the country prepares for legislative elections in June that will pit Western-backed political parties against a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.Hariri died in a massive car bombing on February 14, 2005 that also killed 22 others. The assassination was widely blamed on then Lebanese power-broker Syria, which has denied any involvement. The attack on the Beirut seafront was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since t...
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