Updated on
Summary
A double bomb attack at a football match in northern Iraq, which was unprotected by security forces, killed 25 people on Friday in the second incident this week to cause mass casualties.The explosion, which also left more than 100 people injured according to hospital officials, occurred at around 6:00 pm in Tal Afar, 380 kilometres north of Baghdad, a police officer told. Eyewitnesses said around 250 people were watching the game when the attackers struck and that no police or soldiers were on duty. We heard a loud explosion and the people behind me shielded me from the shrapnel, said a spectator. The police officer said the double blasts were caused by a car bomb followed by a suicide attack. An interior ministry official said 25 people were killed and hospital officials said 120 others were wounded. The incident came four days after a devastating series of attacks in five cities blamed on Al-Qaeda killed 110 people, in the bloodiest violence this year. The government pinned the blame for those attacks on Al-Qaeda, while Iraq's deputy interior minister conceded that the nation's security apparatus was at fault and an inquiry into its shortcomings was underway. The latest violence came as political wrangling over the outcome of Iraq's March 7 election rumbles on.
