Hundreds escape after Iraq prison attacks

[Savonarola]

Deadly fighting breaks out in Iraq's Mosul
Local journalists say 20 people killed as an army base and military posts are attacked by armed men.

Gun battles and car bombs targeting the military in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul have killed 20 people and injured over 60, according to local journalists.

Clashes were reported in 12 districts of the city as an army base and military posts were attacked.

The violence comes a day after fighters launched an offensive on Samarra, also in the country's north, killing seven members of the security forces and taking control of some areas of the city, officials said.

The assault on Samarra, a Sunni-dominated city 95 kilometres from Baghdad, started with dozens of gunmen driving into the city in SUVs and attacking security checkpoints and police stations on Thursday morning.

Reinforcements were sent in and local authorities imposed a curfew.

Helicopter gunships bombed fighters' positions, pushing the attackers back, though they remained in control of some areas of the city by the late afternoon. Security forces said on Friday that they had regained control

Local hospital officials said that apart from the seven policemen and soldiers killed, several attackers also died. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to media.

Samarra was the scene of a major turning point in the Sunni-Shia sectarian struggle in Iraq following the 2003 US-led invasion. In 2006, al-Qaeda-linked Sunni fighters bombed the city's revered Shia al-Askari shrine, triggering a wave of sectarian violence that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war.

Minority targeted

in a seperate development, authorities said back-to-back car bomb attacks killed seven people belonging to an ethnic minority in the north.

Police officials said the explosions on Friday morning took place in Tahrawa, a village inhabited by families from the Shabak ethnic group, who have their own distinct language and belief system.

The village is near the city of Mosul, 360 kilometres northwest of Baghdad.

Police say about 37 people were wounded in the blasts.

Hospital officials confirmed the toll from the attack. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release details to journalists.

According to the United Nations, 8,868 people were killed in Iraq last year - the country's highest death toll since the peak of sectarian bloodletting in 2007.

On the one hand I'm concerned that the cycle of violence in Iraq will continue until a new Saddam like figure arises.  On the other I look forward to learning all about the Shabak people from Spellus.

[derspiess]

On the other I look forward to learning all about the Shabak people from Spellus.

[Valmy]

Is there any particular reason that nobody seems to give a crap about the genocide of Middle Eastern minority groups outside of right wing Islamophobes?  It is just weird.

[Viking]

Is there any particular reason that nobody seems to give a crap about the genocide of Middle Eastern minority groups outside of right wing Islamophobes?  It is just weird.

Only Islamophobes care when mooselimbs murder mooselimbs. The killing that Atlantophobes consider evil is the killing done by US and Israel.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Is there any particular reason that nobody seems to give a crap about the genocide of Middle Eastern minority groups outside of right wing Islamophobes?  It is just weird.

post '68 western selfhate.

[Jacob]

Is there any particular reason that nobody seems to give a crap about the genocide of Middle Eastern minority groups outside of right wing Islamophobes?  It is just weird.

Right wing Islamaphobes care about the genocide of Middle Eastern minority groups?

[Valmy]

Is there any particular reason that nobody seems to give a crap about the genocide of Middle Eastern minority groups outside of right wing Islamophobes?  It is just weird.

Right wing Islamaphobes care about the genocide of Middle Eastern minority groups?

Yeah they are always harping on it.  Especially about the non-Muslim ones obviously.  I know they are doing it mainly to show how Mooslims are teh evol but still.

[Grinning_Colossus]

Who's a Muslim and who isn't is a thorny issue in that part of the world. Groups like the Druze and the Shabaks claim to be Muslim to keep things like this from happening.

As for Mosul, the Kurdish militias will probably throw ISIS out.

[Razgovory]

Is there any particular reason that nobody seems to give a crap about the genocide of Middle Eastern minority groups outside of right wing Islamophobes?  It is just weird.

Only Islamophobes care when mooselimbs murder mooselimbs. The killing that Atlantophobes consider evil is the killing done by US and Israel.

I hate Atlanta and pretty much all of Georgia, your description doesn't apply to me.