A bomb hidden in a bag killed four people, including two children, in a busy market place in the Iraqi Shiite holy town of Kufa, a medic and police official said Saturday. Khalid al-Yassiri from the health department of Najaf, the main city close to Kufa, said four people died in the blast and seven others were wounded.
According to AFP, Najaf police chief Abdel Karim Mustafa said the bomb exploded in the middle of a Kufa market.
In Najaf, unidentified gunmen have killed a prominent aide of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, police said on Saturday. Mohammed al-Garaawi, a member of Sadr's office in the holy city of Najaf, was shot dead in front of his house on Friday, said Najaf police commander General Abdul Karim Mustafa.
Elsewhere, the U.S. military said it had brought a new weapon into the fight in Iraq, declaring the Army's first-ever use of a drone aircraft to kill "enemy fighters" in the country. The Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, dropped a precision bomb on two suspected "insurgents" believed to be preparing to plant roadside bombs on Sept. 1, the military said.
The drone was called in for the attack near Qarraya, 180 miles northwest of Baghdad, after a scout team from the 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, observed the insurgents at work.
"This accomplishment adds a precise and discriminate means for our Army to successfully engage the enemy in counterinsurgency warfare," Col. A.T. Ball, commander of the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a small Sunni bloc ended its parliamentary boycott Saturday, returning to the legislature. The return of the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue ends the last boycott of parliament, which had contributed to the political paralysis.
