Three suicide car bombers killed 55 people and wounded dozens more in Iraq on Monday in separate attacks that police blamed on Al Qaeda and sectarian violence.The attacks were the latest in a succession of car bombings across Iraq in recent weeks that have killed hundreds despite a major US-backed security crackdown in Baghdad and its outlying areas. MondayÂ’s first bomb went off in a packed market at Albu-Thiyab, said Tareq al-Thiyabi, a police colonel and government security adviser in Anbar province. He said 13 people were killed at the market, including women and children. Nearly 20 people were wounded.
The second car bomb exploded soon after at a police checkpoint in a town called Al-Jazeera, where 12 people including five policemen were killed, he said. More than 25 were wounded. “They were terrorists from Al Qaeda,” said Thiyabi, when asked who he thought was behind the twin blasts.
Another car bomb in a wholesale food market in Baghdad claimed 30 lives, according to the Associated Press. The bombing occurred around noon in the Baiyaa district. Police said around 80 people were injured in addition to the 30 dead. Following the blast hospital officials said two pickup trucks filled with body parts were brought to the morgue.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet, although the fact that most of the shops in the market were Shiite is causing many to believe that Sunni hardliners are responsible.
Another suicide car bomber struck Samarra, a Sunni city north of Baghdad. The bomber targeted police headquarters. Following the blast, dozens of insurgents some wearing masks and wielding video cameras opened fire on the building and at least one police checkpoint, witnesses said. The police chief, Col Jalil Nahi Hassoun and 11 other policemen were killed, officials said.
The violence in Anbar came a day after eight American soldiers were killed in Iraq, including six who died along with a journalist in a roadside bomb attack north of Baghdad.
According to the Associated Press, Dmitry Chebotayev, 27, was killed on Sunday while travelling with American troops from Baghdad to Baqouba, Russian Newsweek editor Leonid Parfyonov said. Chebotayev, a freelance photojournalist was on assignment for the magazine at the time, he added. “It is a big loss for us,” Parfyonov told AP.
Meanwhile, US-led forces detained 15 suspected militants on Monday in a series of raids targeting Al Qaida leaders in Iraq, the military said. Troops on a raid in Hillah captured nine suspects, including one person believed to be an Al Qaeda leader, the military said.
Four Iraqis were arrested after soldiers found a load of explosives planted under an oil pipeline that carries crude oil from Iraq to Turkey, the Iraqi Army said. About 150 kilograms of TNT were discovered under a stretch of the pipeline in the Al-Kisk area said Col Muhammed Ahmed, a spokesman for the 3rd Iraqi Army division. The explosives were removed and safely destroyed without injuries, he said.