Iran condemns terrorist attacks in Iraq, Kenya

Iran Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has condemned the terrorist attacks on a Shia neighborhood in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

“Without a doubt, terrorists want to [throw] Iraq into civil war and sectarian strife by fostering religious conflict and inciting people,” Marzieh Afkham said on Sunday.

She offered condolences to the Iraqi government and nation over the deadly car bomb attack on Saturday in Baghdad’s Sadr City.

The Iranian spokeswoman stated that terrorists are using such “inhumane and brutal methods” to exact revenge on the Iraqi government and nation and to obstruct the democratic processes and national solidarity of the country.

At least 69 people have been killed and 120 others injured after two suicide bombers, one in an explosives-laden car and the other on foot, targeted a funeral in Sadr City north of Baghdad on Saturday.

Violence has surged across Iraq in recent months, reaching its highest level since 2008.

According to the United Nations, more than 5,000 people have been killed in violence in Iraq so far this year. The number of casualties for Baghdad, the worst hit province, has been 800 in August alone.

The Iranian spokeswoman also condemned an armed terrorist attack in a partly Israeli-owned shopping mall in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Saturday.

Iran “rejects and strongly condemns any act of terror in any part of the world which targets the lives of innocents,” Afkham said.

Kenya’s Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said on Sunday that at least 59 people have been killed and 175 other injured in an attack by Somali militants on a Nairobi shopping mall as an unknown number of hostages are still being held at the Westgate center.