Article Search

 Explosions rock Baghdad as death toll rises
    April 29 2007 at 03:58PM Get IOL on your
mobile at m.iol.co.za

Baghdad - US forces fired an artillery barrage in southern Baghdad on Sunday morning, rocking the capital with loud explosions. The death toll from a suicide car bomb attack in the Shi'a holy city of Karbala rose to 68 as residents dug through the debris of heavily damaged shops.

The blasts in Baghdad came a day after the US military announced the deaths of nine American troops, including four killed in separate roadside bombings south of Baghdad and five in fighting in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of the capital.

American troops also detained 72 suspected insurgents and seized nitric acid and other bomb-making materials during raids on Sunday targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of the capital, and Salahuddin province, a volatile Sunni area northwest of the capital, the US military said.
Continues Below ↓





The size and the pattern of the explosions, which began after 9am and lasted for at least 15 minutes, suggested they were directed at Sunni militant neighbourhoods along the city's southern rim. Such blasts have been heard in the evenings but are rare at that time of day.

In a brief statement to The Associated Press, the US military said it fired the artillery from a forward operating base near Iraq's Rasheed military base southeast of Baghdad, but provided no other details.

Iraqis in the southern region of the city said American and Iraqi forces had stepped up their operations in the Dora area of southern Baghdad starting on Saturday night.

Authorities in northern Iraq imposed an indefinite curfew in the Sunni stronghold of Samarra after leaflets signed by rival insurgent groups threatened police officers if they did not quit their jobs and promised to target any oil company that wants to explore in the area. The warnings to the policemen were signed by al-Qaida in Iraq and threatened to destroy their houses if they didn't comply.

Leaflets signed by a separate insurgent umbrella group calling itself the Mujahedeen of Samarra warned against oil exploration in the area and were posted on the walls of mosques in central Samarra, 95 kilometres (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

Samarra also was one of the targets of the raids announced by the US military, which said 36 suspected insurgents with alleged ties to al-Qaida in Iraq who were taken into custody there.

In the Anbar province city of Karmah, 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Baghdad, American forces found 20 five- gallon (75-liter) drums of nitric acid and other bomb-making materials, the statement said.

Iran, meanwhile, agreed to attend a US-backed regional conference on Iraq set for this week in Egypt - a major break as Iraq seeks support from its neighbours in quelling its sectarian violence and getting back on its feet economically. Tehran said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will lead the delegation to the May 3-4 meetings.

Arab countries also are expected to demand that al-Maliki's government do more to reach out to disgruntled Sunni Arabs before they pledge substantial aid to the country.

Separately, an Iraqi Sunni lawmaker urged his party to withdraw from the Shi'a-led government if it fails to better protect citizens from sectarian bloodshed.

Khalaf al-Ilyan, one of the three leaders of the Iraqi Accordance Front, said at a news conference in Amman, Jordan, that his party should set a timetable for the government to end mass killings and "stop threatening lawmakers" from his party.

The Accordance Front holds five Cabinet posts and 44 seats in the 275-seat Iraqi parliament.

The blast in Karbala, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Baghdad, took place about 7 pm on Saturday in a crowded commercial area about 200 meters (yards) from the shrines of Imam Abbas and Imam Hussein, major Shi'a saints. The shrines, some of the country's most sacred, were not damaged, police said.

Police first thought the explosion was caused by a parked car bomb, but Ghalib al-Daami, a Karbala provincial council member, said Sunday it was a suicide car bomber in the busy commercial centre.

Residents on Sunday gathered around the large crater left in the road by the bomb, and pools of water left by firefighters fighting the blaze were still tinged red with blood.

Salim Kazim, the spokesman for Karbala health directorate, said the casualty figures had risen to 68 dead after some of the wounded died and more bodies were found on the roofs of buildings or in the rubble, and 178 were wounded.

As police maintained a vehicle ban in the city, people began digging through the rubble of damaged shops, lifting debris from the powerful explosion, which had shot flames into the air.

"The explosion was so powerful that it threw me up into the air," said Haidar Ismail, one of the many patients lying in overcrowded rooms at Imam Hussein Hospital with bandages covering their wounds and burns.

Saturday's attack was the second car bomb to strike the city's central area in two weeks. On April 14, 47 people were killed and 224 were wounded in a car bombing in the same area.

Ghalib al-Daami, a provincial council member who oversees security matters, noted how close the suicide bomber came to the Imam Abbas shrine, which with the others draws thousands of Shi'a pilgrims from Iran and other countries. That suggested the attack was aimed at killing as many Shiite worshippers as possible.

In other developments Sunday:

  • Two roadside bombs exploded in separate areas of a predominantly Shi'a area in southeastern Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding nine, police said.

  • Gunmen seriously wounded Amal al-Moudares, one of Iraq's best known radio and television journalists, in an attack near her home in Baghdad, police said.

  • The Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group of Sunni militants that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, claimed responsibility for a suicide truck bombing Friday in the western city of Hit, saying it was targeting the police chief. The attack killed nine Iraqi security forces and six civilians, although police chief Hamid Ibrahim al-Numrawi and his family were unharmed.

  • In a statement posted on a militant Web site, al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb on Thursday that killed 10 Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in Khalis, a longtime flashpoint city 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Ten soldiers and five civilians were wounded, police said.

  • An employee at a communications centre in the northern city of Mosul was killed in a drive-by shooting, police said.

  • Police found the bullet-riddled body of an unidentified man in southwestern Baghdad.

  • A sniper shot to death an Iraqi woman near a market in western Baghdad, police said.

    ---

    Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, and Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report. - Sapa-AP

    • Email StoryPrint Story
    BOOKMARK THIS STORY
    Social bookmarking allows users to save and categorise a personal collection of bookmarks and share them with others. This is different to using your own browser bookmarks which are available using the menus within your web browser.

    Use the links below to share this article on the social bookmarking site of your choice.

    Read more about social bookmarking at Wikipedia - Social Bookmarking

    muti


         Breaking News      Most Read Stories
          Top News Stories
          Top World Stories
          Top Reads - Yesterday



         Entertainment      Motoring
    'Twenty-five years feels right in my bones'
    Radio station in a knot over wedding dilemma
    Driver dies in Miley Cyrus tour bus crash

         Business
    Obama touts Asia trade to create jobs
    Michelin to build new factory in Brazil
    Thousands of Spanish farmers protest low prices
    Well-mannered Porsche - just built to race
    Kia's latest baby - she's even smaller than a Picanto
    Communist cousins in demand from behind the Wall
    Amid Expo back in 2010 despite poor sales
    Triumph recalls Sprint 1050 ST

         Travel
    Berlin hipster hotel taps bygone spirit
    River Plate reflect on the past
    Still hope for the Garden Route
    Marrying great music with fine food
    Beaujolais nouveau hot in Japan
         Careers
    For many, full potential goes unharnessed
    Getting to grips with the transport industry
    To be your own boss, believe in yourself first
    Salary survey puts unstable economy into the equation
    Development of child is key