Explosions Rock Baghdad Amid Iraqi Political Crisis

 

Volence erupted across Baghdad early on Thursday, as a series of explosions killed 41 people and wounded 151, according to security officials. The attacks were the most significant since United States troops withdrew and a political crisis unfolded.  The explosions rocked many areas around the city and the BBC said the authorities had identified 13 targets.

The apparently coordinated attacks came a day after Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq threatened to abandon an American-backed power-sharing government created a year ago.
It was the worst violence to strike the capital since rifts opened between Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, and his Sunni rivals.

The prime minister’s words at a televised news conference on Wednesday threw a fragile democracy into further turmoil just days after the departure of American troops and potentially tarnishing what has been cast as a major foreign policy achievement for President Obama.

In a nearly 90-minute news conference broadcast on tape-delay on Wednesday, Mr. Maliki pushed back on all fronts in the crisis, threatening to release investigatory files that he claimed implicated his opponents in terrorism.

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source aricle: nytimes.com
source image: nytimes.com