BAGHDAD, Iraq – The recent upsurge in violence continued to exact a heavy toll on Iraqi civilians Tuesday, while members of the national parliament said they moved a step closer to voting on a law to equitably distribute oil revenue.
Police on Tuesday reported the deaths of dozens of people in sectarian violence across Iraq, including the massacre of 16 people attending a funeral in Khalis.
Late Monday, gunmen attacked a minibus south of Baghdad, killing 11 passengers, including women and children. Health officials said the bodies of 10 people were people found Tuesday in Baqouba. In Basra, police and health sources reported that a car bomb killed eight and injured 14.
Col. David Sutherland, a U.S. Army officer in Diyala province, said outrages such as the Baqouba funeral murders were pushing more citizens to the coalition’s side, evidenced by a 163 percent increase in intelligence tips received by the coalition over the past two months.
In other violence, gunmen manning a false checkpoint in Latifiya stopped a minibus, ordered passengers out and killed three, police said. Drive-by shootings killed two people and injured five in Baghdad and Mussayb.
Despite the ongoing bloodshed, figures compiled Tuesday from Iraqi government reports show that the number of Iraqi civilian deaths fell nearly 20 percent from 1,872 in March to 1,501 in April.
Meanwhile, a legislator with the Iraqi National List party said parliamentarians had written a draft of a new hydrocarbons law that should be going before the full parliament in the next few weeks. The law would define how oil revenue would be distributed among Iraq’s provinces.
The Bush administration is pushing legislators to act quickly on the bill before the parliament adjourns.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
