Iraq Sees Second Day of Surging Violence | Voice of America - English
More than 20 people are dead in Iraq in the second day of surging violence that killed more than 100 people Tuesday.
Bombings and shootings were reported across the country. Sirens wailed in the northern city of Kirkuk after a suicide truck bomb killed at least eight people and wounded perhaps 40. In Baghdad, a bomb attack in a Shi'ite area killed 15 people and wounded more than 30. South of Baghdad, a mortar attack on a residential area killed one person while a police officer was found strangled. While two separate attacks in the southern city of Basra wounded British soldiers. This witness says one attack was made by a roadside bomb. Tuesday, more than 100 people died in attacks around Baghdad. Two bombings hit a university killing 70 people and wounded more than 100 others. The surging violence might signal a campaign by Sunni insurgents to do as much damage as possible before the deployment of more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops. Most of the new troops will back up the Iraqi army in a security sweep to rid the capital of Sunni and Shiite gunmen. Some critics of the plan say it will be difficult to carry out because some Iraqi police and military units have been infiltrated by members of sectarian militia groups. But U.S. Brigadier General Terry Wolff, who leads training efforts, says training new leadership for the security services will help. "Dealing with the militias and infiltration, particularly infiltration, is really a function of leadership and so a lot of the training effort on going is focused on insuring you have the right leaders in the right positions that are capable of leading from the front and appropriately," he said. U.N. officials say sectarian violence killed an average of 94 Iraqis each day last year.