Iraq attacks kill 11 as elections loom

Attacks in Iraq killed 11 people today in the run-up to next week's first parliamentary elections since US troops withdrew, with violence at its worst in years.
Shootings and blasts in the capital came a day after a twin bombing by a jihadist group on a Shiite political rally there killed 36 people, the deadliest single attack during campaigning for Wednesday's polls.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is seeking a third term on Wednesday, with voters citing a long list of grievances ranging from poor electricity and sewage to rampant corruption and high unemployment.
A bomb inside a central Baghdad cafe left three people dead today, and gunmen killed four others in shootings around the capital, security and medical officials said.

In Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, attackers shot dead four soldiers and detonated bombs at two polling centres.
A police officer said at least two of the assassinations appeared to be revenge attacks for the twin bombings on the political rally.

Last evening, a car bomb followed by a suicide attack hit a rally for the Sadiqun bloc, the political wing of the Asaib Ahel al-Haq (League of the Righteous) militia, killing 36 people.
The League of the Righteous, a Shiite militia previously blamed for killing US soldiers and kidnapping Britons, has been linked to groups fighting mostly Sunni rebels in Syria, whose civil war has split the Middle East's sectarian communities, particularly in multi-confessional Iraq.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed the attack, saying it wanted to avenge the League's involvement in neighbouring Syria.
ISIL, itself fighting in Syria, made the claim in a statement on jihadist forums hours after the attack.
It was "in revenge for what the Safavid militias are doing in Iraq and Sham (the Levant), killing and torturing and displacing Sunnis," it said.