| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Baquba mayor among 35 hurt by roadside bomb |
| 2008-12-08 |
| The mayor of the Iraqi city of Baquba was among 35 people wounded in a roadside bombing in the restive provincial capital northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, medical and security sources said. General Raghem al-Omairi, head of military operations in the city, was injured along with Mayor Abdullah al-Khayali by the bomb, Baquba General Hospital medic Ahmed Alwan told AFP. Two journalists from local television channel Dijla, eight policemen, six anti-Qaeda militiamen and 17 civilians were also among the wounded, the doctor said. The blast happened when Khayali and Omairi and a heavy escort were visiting the town's old market on the eve of the Eid al-Adha festival, the sources said. The police officers and officials had been removing concrete barriers placed across downtown streets in Baquba two years ago, when ethnic and sectarian bloodshed raged across Iraq and Baquba, a volatile and religiously mixed city, was a war zone. "They were just walking along in a group when they reached an electrical appliance store. Suddenly a powerful blast happened. The front of the store was totally destroyed," said Ali Abu Shahad, a Sunni Arab patrolman who witnessed the blast. Violence has fallen significantly in Iraq this year but insurgents are still capable of carrying out bloody attacks. Tensions remain high in Diyala between majority Shiites and Sunni Arabs, some of whom initially sided with al-Qaeda, ahead of provincial elections next year and the withdrawal by mid-2009 of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities and towns. |
| Posted by:Fred |