A spate of morning rush hour bomb blasts in Baghdad killed at least five and injured 14 Jan. 12. (Middle East Online, Jan. 12) Iraqi Education Minister Abed Theyab narrowly escaped injury Jan. 15 when a roadside bomb exploded near his convoy in Baghdad, injuring three by-standers. In another attack, a security guard was killed when a bomb exploded near a convoy carrying Housing Ministry employees to work. Also that day, two rockets or mortars struck the Green Zone, injuring one. (AP, Jan. 15)

On Jan. 9, at least 24 tribal leaders meeting at the house of an influential Sunni sheikh to discuss national reconciliation efforts were killed and as many as 42 others wounded when a member of the Qaraghul tribe detonated an explosive vest among the guests. The bombing occurred in the town of Yusufiya, about 25 miles southwest of Baghdad in an area once referred to as the "Triangle of Death" because of the heavy presence there of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia. (NYT, Jan. 12)

A reconciliation meeting was similarly targeted for terror in Kirkuk last month, leaving 55 dead.

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