| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq-Jordan |
| Al-Qaeda car bomb kills 18 |
| 2005-04-15 |
| A pair of car bombs exploded near the Iraqi interior minister's offices in Baghdad yesterday, killing 18 people and wounding three dozen others. Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the blasts, the latest in several weeks of stepped-up attacks that followed a relative lull in violence in mid-March. In a statement posted on the internet, al Qaeda in Iraq, headed by Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant, said the bombings targeted police guarding the offices of Falah al Naqib, the interior minister, who is in charge of the nation's police. The claim was not independently verified. Al Naqib was in his office at the time of the attacks, but he left to examine the damage and announced that he was fine. The explosions did not damage the building where he works. The blasts sent plumes of smoke rising over the city and threw passers-by to the ground. Ali Ahmed, 28, said he was selling ice cream from his stall when he heard an explosion, followed by gunfire and another explosion. "My stall was partially destroyed because of this terrorist act," he said. "Some people have lost their lives. As for me, I have now lost my source of income." The blasts blew out the windows of nearby restaurants in the upscale neighbourhood of the capital, near the heavily fortified Green Zone. After clearing the area, US forces set off a third car bomb that apparently failed to explode earlier. Captain Ahmed Ismael, an Interior Ministry official, said the first two blasts killed 18 and wounded 36. One government worker said five garbage collectors he had been supervising were among the dead. Insurgents kept up attacks yesterday against Iraq's security forces. Gunmen hit police patrolling near the central city of Baquba, killing one officer and wounding three others. In the capital, attackers shot and killed a soldier as he made his way to work at Iraq's intelligence service. Seven gunmen riding in two vehicles fired on the police station just south of Kirkuk, killing five police officers and one civilian. Militant group Ansar al Sunnah claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in an internet posting that its "knights of Islam" had attacked "renegade policemen doing their morning training". The claim could not be verified. In Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town 80 miles north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded outside a US military installation, injuring one American and two Iraqi soldiers as well as nine civilians, and setting nearby houses ablaze. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 In Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s home town 80 miles north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded outside a US military installation, injuring one American and two Iraqi soldiers as well as nine civilians, and setting nearby houses ablaze. I imagine the cousins are really pleased with that outcome. I wonder how many more al-Tikritis will be suddenly arrested in the near future. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-04-15 9:16:14 PM |