More than 50 dead across Iraq

Gunmen storm police chief's home killing 14 people in spray of bullet

By JOHN F. BURNS, New York Times
First published: Saturday, June 9, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- More than 50 people were killed in attacks across Iraq on Friday, including 14 who died when gunmen stormed a police chief's home northeast of Baghdad and raked the occupants with automatic fire.

The police chief, staying elsewhere for the night, survived. His wife and son were among the dead.

At least 34 others were killed in two bombing attacks, one in the northern city of Daquq, about 30 miles south of Kirkuk, and the other in the southern city of Qurna, 60 miles north of Basra. In a familiar pattern, both bombings involved successive explosions set at close quarters in crowded areas, a technique often used to maximize casualties.

The Daquq bombings struck a Shiite mosque and a nearby police station. The attack began when two suicide bombers detonated explosive vests in the forecourt of a mosque frequented by supporters of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, followed by a car bomb close by, according to the local police. They said at least 19 people died, and more than 20 were injured.

The Qurna blasts involved two vehicle bombs, one in a minibus in a bus terminal, the other in a car beside a nearby market. The police said at least 15 people were killed and more than 30 wounded.

Turkey shells Kurds Turkish forces shelled Kurdish rebel positions across the border in northern Iraq, Iraqi Kurd officials reported to the Associated Press Friday, heightening fears that the fighting could flare into a larger conflict and draw in the U.S.

Turkey has been building up its forces along the border with Iraq, and its leaders are debating whether to stage a major incursion to pursue separatist rebels who cross over from bases in Iraq to attack Turkish targets. Such an operation could ignite a wider conflict involving Iraqi Kurds, and disrupt Turkey's ties with its NATO ally, the United States.

Iran has also clashed with Iranian Kurd fighters who have bases in remote, mountainous areas of northern Iraq, and Iranian forces reportedly participated in the overnight shelling.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or PUK, the party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, reported the Turkish and Iranian shelling on its Web site.

Source :TimesUnion.com