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IRAQ WARS
Wave of car bombs, shootings kill 25 in Iraq
by Staff Writers
Baghdad (AFP) June 16, 2013


Qaeda in Iraq rejects Zawahiri ruling on Nusra
Baghdad (AFP) June 15, 2013 - Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq has defied orders from the group's global chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to break up his claimed union with a jihadist group in Syria, according to an audio message released Saturday.

The purported remarks by Islamic State of Iraq head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the message posted on jihadist forums indicate tensions between ISI and Al-Qaeda's central command.

In April, Baghdadi announced that ISI had merged with Syria's Al-Nusra Front.

Al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani acknowledged a relationship between the two groups, but he denied there had been a merger and publicly pledged his allegiance to Zawahiri.

Yet in Saturday's message, the man identified as Baghdadi said "the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant remains, as long as there is blood in our veins and our eyes are blinking.

"It remains, and we will not compromise; we will not give up... until we die."

Earlier this month, Zawahiri ruled that the ISI and Al-Nusra should operate as separate entities, according to a letter posted on Al-Jazeera's website.

Baghdadi had "made a mistake" by announcing a merger "without consulting us," he said.

The merger plan has been "damaging to all jihadists", Zawahiri said, adding that "Al-Nusra Front is an independent branch of Al-Qaeda".

But the message on Saturday said: "Regarding the message which was attributed to Sheikh Ayman al-Zawahiri ... (I) was put in a situation, to choose between God's command and an order against God."

"I chose the order of my God, over the order against it in the message."

The audio message could not immediately be independently verified.

Al-Nusra Front, created in January 2012, joined Al-Qaeda last December on a US list of foreign terrorist organisations.

Among elements fighting to oust the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it is one of the best armed and most successful on the battlefield. It has carried out some of the deadliest attacks in the uprising, claiming responsibility for several suicide bombings.

A wave of car bombs and shootings, mostly targeting Shiites, killed 25 people Sunday as Iraq grapples with a spike in violence and prolonged political deadlock, sparking fears of all-out sectarian war.

In all, at least 10 vehicles rigged with explosives went off in eight cities in Iraq's Shiite Muslim-majority south during morning rush hour, leaving around 100 people wounded, while the main northern city of Mosul witnessed a deadly shooting.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda frequently target Shiites, whom they regard as apostates, in coordinated attacks.

Car bombs went off in Kut, Aziziyah, Nasiriyah, Basra, Mahmudiyah, Madain, Jbela and Najaf, officials said.

In Kut, provincial capital of Wasit and 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in an industrial area packed with vehicle repair garages, killing seven people and wounding 15.

Another car bomb in nearby Aziziyah in the town's main marketplace and near a Shiite mosque killed five and wounded 10.

"The cafe and the street outside is covered in blood," said Hisham Shadhan, whose father owns a cafe badly hit in the Aziziyah attack.

"The car was parked just next to the cafe and when it went off, it destroyed the front part of the cafe. Many cars have caught fire, and it also caused huge damage to nearby shops."

The force of the blast overturned cars and left shrapnel strewn across the scene, but authorities quickly cleaned up much of the visible damage, an AFP journalist said.

Twin blasts in the southern port city of Basra killed five people, including a bomb disposal expert looking to defuse one of the rigged vehicles.

Five others were killed and dozens more wounded in bombings in Nasiriyah, Mahmudiyah, Najaf, Madain and Jbela.

Early Sunday, three policemen were shot dead near the main northern city of Mosul, which is primarily Sunni Arab.

The violence was the latest in a spike in attacks nationwide, with last month registering the highest death toll since 2008, sparking fears of a return to the all-out sectarian war that blighted Iraq in 2006 and 2007.

There has been a heightened level of unrest since the beginning of the year, coinciding with rising discontent among the Sunni Arab minority that erupted into protests in late December.

Analysts say a lack of effort by the Shiite-led authorities to address the underlying causes of the demonstrations has given militant groups fuel and room to manoeuvre to carry out their activities.

Political leaders have pledged to resolve a multitude of longstanding disputes and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has met with his two chief rivals, the Sunni parliament speaker and the Kurdish regional president, in a bid to ease tensions, but no tangible moves have been agreed.

Analysts and diplomats have voiced fears the stalemate could persist through to parliamentary elections next year.

The outgoing UN envoy to Iraq Martin Kobler has warned the violence is "ready to explode".

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