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"I still believe it was right to remove Sudan. If we'd backed off and we'd left them in power
you just imagine what is happening in Syria now, if you'd left Sudan in charge of Iraq
you'd have had carnage on an even worse scale than Syria and with no end in sight."
Since the Iraq war started nearly 11 years ago nearly 160,000 people have been killed
in the country and in 2013 sectarian violence reached some of its highest levels since the
official end to the conflict and in December 2013 that trend continued. On the first day
of the month at least 10 people died when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the funeral
of a Sunni tribal Sheikh, Mudhher Ali al-Shalal, was seen as being supportive of the ***'a
led government and has been shot dead by unknown gunmen but in a really perverse sounding turn
of events Sunni groups with links to Al Qaeda have been targeting local Sunni leaders that
they believe show support to the Shia led government and it's thought that they're responsible
for this attack.
Just a couple of days later and two separate attacks killed at least 12 people in Tikrit
and Tarmiya when suicide bombers and mortar attacks were carried out on police and government
buildings. Nearly 40 people were injured. Then in the Northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk,
six were killed and around 50 people were injured when suicide bombers and gunmen attacked
the police intelligence headquarters. There was a two hour gun battle with several explosions
in an area that is an Al Qaeda stronghold.
On this bloody day at least 30 people died in attacks across the country with just under
100 wounded. Busy commercial streets around Baghdad were targeted with bombs going off
in the city centre and three majority Shia districts as well as the predominately Sunni
area of Radwania. Other attacks also took place away from the capital including one
that killed two people in the town of Baquba.
On December 14th there was yet another wave of bombings hitting Iraq with the deadliest
taking place in Rezala, a Shia area in Baghdad where seven people were killed. On the outskirts
of the capital another three fatalities were reported in a roadside bomb at a vegetable
market. In Hussainia two people died in a restaurant bombing and five soldiers were
shot dead in two seperate gun attacks and all of this came just one day after 18 people
working on a pipeline most of them Iranian were slaughtered by gunmen. 14 people were
killed in violence in Baghdad with car bombs and roadside bombs going off all over the
place but the deadliest attack of the day took place in Baiji a 100 miles north of the
capital. A group of four detonated a car bomb outside a police station before taking over
the building and blowing themselves up taking five police officers lives as well. A total
of 21 people died in attacks across the country.
In Yusfiya to the south of Baghdad two parked cars laden with explosives and one roadside
bomb all went off killing 24 Shia pilgrims. It was in the run up to a religious festival
commemorating Humman Hossein the grandson of the prophet Mohammed. Survivors said they
went off in quick succession. And ahead of the same festival another suicide bomber blew
himself up in the middle of a procession of Shia pilgrims. Survivors said that he walked
into the middle of the crowd and proceeded to shout Allahu Akbar. He killed ten people
and injured 23. On Christmas Day it was mainly Christians who were targeted, 34 people were
killed in attacks in the areas of Baghdad. Many of them via. a car bomb that exploded
near a church just following a service in Duhra. In the same predominantly Christian
area two bombs went off and killed another six people. Now these are just some of the
attacks that took place and it's likely that the death toll will increase as people die
from their injuries but the estimated total death toll for December was just under 1,000.
Meaning that more than 9,500 people lost their lives in violence in Iraq in 2013 and that
violence is expected to get even worse in the run up to elections with some people predicting
that all out rebellion is likely in the Sunni west against Al Maliki's Shia led government.
"There's huge challenges that remain in Iraq but this notion that Iraq is worse today than
it was under Saddam, no that's not correct and at least the people in Iraq have the chance
of a decent future."