The interim Iraqi government announced a 60-day state of emergency throughout most of the country Sunday, as an escalated wave of attacks killed scores of people over the past two days.
Blasts were heard in Baghdad as government spokesman Thair Hassan al-Naqeeb declared the state of emergency over the entire country except Kurdish areas in the north. "It is going to be a curfew. It is going to be so many things, but tomorrow the prime minister will mention it," he said.
Earlier on Sunday, three Diyala provincial officials were shot dead south of Baghdad as they were on their way to a funeral in Karbala for a fourth colleague assassinated earlier this week. Governor's aide Jassim Mohammed was killed along with Diyala provincial council members, Shihab Ahmed and Dureid Mohammed, an Iraqi official said, according to The AP.
Elsewhere, a huge car bomb went off in an attack aimed at Iraq's Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi in central Baghdad on Sunday. The car exploded up in the street where Abdul Madhi lives in the Karrada district. (albawaba.com)
