Car bombs explode at checkpoints in
Iraq's Samarra, three dead
Send a link to a friend
[January 08, 2015]
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs
exploded at three checkpoints on the western outskirts of Iraq's holy
city of Samarra on Thursday, killing three people and wounding 41
others, a security official and locals said.
|
Samarra in central Iraq, 125 km (80 miles) north of Baghdad, is
home to a significant Shi'ite shrine and has been under attack since
Islamic State militants swept through most Sunni areas north of the
capital in June.
The three bombs before sunrise on Thursday killed a civilian and two
policemen as well as wounding dozens of others, and were followed by
a hail of rocket and mortar fire, the official said.
Then, after several hours of fighting with security forces, gunmen
retreated under fire from Iraqi warplanes, he said.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jan/08/images/ads/current/sunloan_bch_121614.png) The blowing up of the ninth century al-Askari shrine in
Sunni-majority Samarra in February 2006 by Sunni jihadists triggered
revenge attacks by Shi'ite militias, tipping Iraq into years of
sectarian violence.
Islamic State adopts a puritanical interpretation of Sunni Islam and
considers tombs sacrilegious. It has also destroyed shrines in areas
of eastern and northern Syria that it controls.
[to top of second column] |
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jan/08/images/ads/current/graue_preowned_122114.png)
On Thursday, al Qadea-linked Nusra Front militants blew up the 13th
century tomb of a revered Islamic scholar in southern Syria, Syrian
state news agency SANA and monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, reported.
(Reporting by Saif Hameed; Writing by Ned Parker; Editing by Louise
Ireland)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jan/08/images/ads/current/gives_you_more_bch_040314.png) |