4 killed, 11 wounded in twin bomb blasts in Baghdad

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Source: CNN

Baghdad (CNN) -- Four people died and another 11 were wounded in a pair of apparently coordinated bomb blasts Thursday in Baghdad, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

The deadliest explosion occurred in the city's al-Hurriya neighborhood, a predominantly Shiite community in the northwestern part of the city. A car bomb in that predominantly Shiite community killed two people and left nine others dead, according to the Interior Ministry official.

Another improvised explosive device exploded Thursday near an Iraqi military convoy in Sadr City, a Shiite area that is home to about 1.5 million people in eastern Bahdad. Two soldiers died as a result and two were wounded.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/26/world/meast/iraq-bombings/

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2. AP Interview: Iraqi Kurd leader hints at secession

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The president of Iraq's self-rule Kurdish region demanded Wednesday that Shiite leaders agree on sharing power with their political opponents by September or else the Kurds could consider breaking away from Baghdad.

The warning by Kurdish President Massoud Barzani in an interview with The Associated Press underscores that Shiite domination in Iraq's government is reviving secession dreams that the now departed American military had tried to contain.

"What threatens the unity of Iraq is dictatorship and authoritarian rule," Barzani said in a 45-minute interview in his sprawling office outside of Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region he leads in northern Iraq. "If Iraq heads toward a democratic state, then there will be no trouble. But if Iraq heads toward a dictatorial state, then we will not be able to live with dictatorship."

He called it a "very dangerous political crisis in the country" and said the impasse must be broken by September, when voters in the Kurdish region may consider a referendum for a state independent of Iraq.

http://newsok.com/ap-interview-iraqi-kurd-leader-hints-at-secession/article/feed/374738?custom_click=pod_headline_middle-east