Iraqi students condemn bombings

One of the students, Yasmin Mohammed, said: “This attack is not targeting a specific sect. The university has students who are Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians. It is a war on everything associated with Iraq.”

 

She added that Tuesday’s attacks will not deter her from attending classes despite her family’s objections.

 

“I insisted, as [boycotting] would give a victory to the terrorists,” she said.

 

Another student, Yasir Mohammed, said universities needed to continue to function.

 

“Despite the ugliness of the act, education in Baghdad will not stop.

 

“Such an act is not the first of its kind in Iraq nowadays. It is however different as it was meant to stop the wheels of education. But we will pursue our study until the last professor and last student.”

 

 

Police sealed off the renowned Mustansiriya university campus as the education ministry ordered three days of mourning and told its institutions to conduct prayers for the victims.

 

Dozens of Iraqis donated blood for the victims of the attack, which marked the deadliest bombing since a series of car bombs ripped through the Shia area of al-Sadr City on November 23, killing 202 people.

 

The double bombing came as university students, professors and other employees headed home at the end of the day, leaving corpses littered in the street and charred bodies in vehicles.

 

Violence in Iraq continued on Wednesday as at least 14 people were killed and 42 injured in a bomb blasts in the northern city of Kirkuk and Baghdad.