Iraqis fire fighters douse the remains of a vehicle at the scene of a car bomb in the city of Nasiriyah, south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, on July 15, 2013. <\/p>\n
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At least four people have been killed in a bomb blast near a popular swimming area in the Iraqi province of Diyala, officials say.\n<\/p>\n
According to police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the explosion occurred on Wednesday in the town of Wajihiya, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the capital Baghdad.\n<\/p>\n
Two swimmers and two passers-by lost their lives in the explosion.\n<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, a mortar shelling on swimmers in the Tigris River near Samarra, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, killed four people including a 10-year-old boy.\n<\/p>\n
Iraq has seen a surge in violence since the start of the year, with the United Nations reporting that more than 2,500 people were killed from April through June, the highest level since 2008.\n<\/p>\n
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but officials say the main suspects are militants linked to al-Qaeda.\n<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, UN Special Representative to Iraq Martin Kobler advised Iraqi leaders to hold meetings to address the country\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s problems, including the recent wave of car bomb attacks.\n<\/p>\n
Iraqi officials say the violence is part of a foreign-backed plot to provoke sectarian strife in the country.\n<\/p>\n
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has also said that militant groups and the remnants of the former Ba\u00e2\u201e\u00a2athist regime are responsible for the latest wave of violence in the country.\n<\/p>\n
MAM\/KA
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Republished with permission from: Press TV<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iraqis fire fighters douse the remains of a vehicle at the scene of a car bomb in the city of Nasiriyah, south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, on July 15, 2013. At least four people have been killed in a bomb blast near a popular swimming area in the Iraqi province of Diyala, officials say. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-51007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}