Monday, June 25, 2012

Iraq: Bomb blasts kills 9 young soccer players and fans and 5 people near a pet shop

Is Islam a beautiful thing or what?
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Nine young soccer players and fans were killed when a bomb exploded near a pitch in southern Iraq, health officials said, in the latest of a wave of attacks raising fears of a return to widespread sectarian violence.

The explosion in a predominantly Shi'ite Muslim area of the city of Hilla came the same day as police and hospital sources said a roadside bomb killed five people near a pet shop popular with young people in a Sunni Muslim area of the northern city of Baquba.

More than 140 people have been killed in June in bombings targeting mainly Shi'ite pilgrims and shrines as political and sectarian tensions remain high. [...]

The dead and injured soccer players and fans were aged between 15 and 20, said Abdul Amir al-Jibouri, a media manager for the health department in Babil province. More than 30 others were injured, he added.

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