Five Soldiers Shot and Burned in Iraq

On Sunday, 22 people–including five soldiers–were killed in Iraq. The soldiers were shot and the gunmen burned their bodies.

One hundred eighty miles north of Baghdad in the town of Qaiyara militants attacked two taxis carrying the soldiers. One car managed to escape the attack. A person at the morgue confirmed the bodies were burned.

Three people died and 15 were injured when a car bomb exploded in Balad. Two people were murdered in their Mosul homes. Two explosions in Baghdad killed three people and wounded ten. In Madaen, two explosions killed seven people and wounded 28.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

There have been many attacks in Iraq in recent months because the Sunni-led government came down hard on a Sunni protest in April. Over 1,000 people were killed in July, making it Iraq’s deadliest month since 2008. The US withdrew troops 18 months ago and tensions between Iraq’s Shi’ite, Sunni, and ethnic Kurdish factions have exploded. The civil war in Syria is adding to turmoil in the country, because many Syrians are escaping to Iraq.