Bombings and shootings across Iraq, including the killing of a television cameraman, left seven people dead today as a wave of violent attacks striking the country rages on, officials said.
The deadliest attack happened today night when gunmen in a speeding car opened fire on a small fast food restaurant in Baghdad's western neighborhood of Amariyah, killing four people and wounding seven, authorities said.
An hour later, police said a bomb exploded near a cafe in the town of Madain, 20 kilometers (14 miles) south of Baghdad.
The blast killed two people and wounded seven, they said. In the northern city of Mosul, police said gunmen killed Bashar al-Nuaimi, a cameraman working for local TV channel al-Moussilyah, as he was walking near his house. They offered no immediate motive for the attack, though journalists have been targeted by militants in the past.
Hospital officials confirmed the casualties for the attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists.
Violence has been on the rise in Iraq since a security crackdown in April on a Sunni protest site in the northern town of Hawijah. At least 462 people have died in attacks across the country so far this month, according to an Associated Press count.
Also today, the United States pledged USD 1 million for relocating a group of Iranian dissidents displaced in Iraq. The US decision came a day after the United Nations launched a trust fund to cover the cost of moving of 3,174 members of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq outside Iraq.
The MEK group, which is strongly opposed to Iran's clerical regime, was welcomed into Iraq by Saddam Hussein in the 1980s during the brutal war with neighboring Iran. Their fortunes turned sharply with the Iraqi dictator's toppling in the 2003 US-led invasion. Iraq's current Shiite-led Iraqi government, which has strengthened ties with Tehran, considers their presence in the country illegal.
A disputed Sept. 1 shooting at their longtime home in Camp Ashraf killed 52 MEK members roughly half of the camp's remaining population. The dissidents accuse Iraqi security forces of carrying out the killings.
Baghdad denies involvement, with officials saying an internal dispute was to blame. It has promised to carry out an investigation.
A total of 210 residents have left to other countries so far, according to figures provided by the UN refugee agency.
