Suicide blast kills 14 in Iraqi capital
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber attacked a security checkpoint in northern Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 14 people, Iraqi officials said.
The bomber, who was on foot, detonated his device at one of the busy entrances of the Shiite district of Kadhimiyah, killing at least 10 civilians and four policemen, a police officer said. At least 31 other people were wounded.
Three more civilians were killed and 11 wounded in a bomb explosion in an outdoor market in Baghdad’s western suburb of Abu Ghraib, another police officer said.
In an online statement, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Kadhimiyah attack, saying it targeted a gathering of security forces and Shiite militia members. Security forces and public areas, mainly in Shiite neighborhoods, are among the most frequent targets for the Islamic State group, which controls key areas in mainly northern and western Iraq.
Activists: Syrian strikes hit clinics
BEIRUT — Government air raids struck at least five medical facilities in the northern province of Aleppo, where violence has intensified in recent weeks amid a siege by government forces, Syrian opposition activists said Sunday.
The activists said the air raids began late Saturday and continued until after midnight, killing at least five people, including an infant.
The International Committee of the Red Cross tweeted after reports of the air raids on the provincial capital of Aleppo and the nearby town of Atareb: “Harrowing news: More hospitals hit in #Aleppo this morning. Civilians and hospitals are #notatarget.”
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four clinics were now out of service in the city of Aleppo, as was the fifth in the town Atareb to the west. It said five people had been killed in Aleppo.
The group said the clinics closed because they feared being targeted again.
At German fest, man explodes self
ANSBACH, Germany — Bavaria’s top security official says a man who blew himself up after being turned away from an open-air music festival in the southern German city of Ansbach was a 27-yearold Syrian who had been denied asylum.
“We don’t know if this man planned on suicide or if he had the intention of killing others,” Joachim Herrmann said.
He added that the man’s request for asylum was rejected a year ago, but he was allowed to remain in Germany because of Syria’s state of civil war.
Twelve people were injured in the explosion, which came two days after a man went on a deadly rampage at a Munich mall, killing nine people, and after an ax attack on a train near Wuerzburg last Monday wounded five.
The dpa news agency reported that the nearby open-air concert, with about 2,500 in attendance, was shut down as a precaution after the explosion.
Bavarian public broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk reported that about 200 police officers and 350 rescue personnel were brought in after the explosion in Ansbach.
A Section on 07/25/2016