Ten people were killed and 15 hurt when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a market place in southwest Baghdad Saturday evening as Muslims were preparing to break the Ramazan fast, officials said.The blast occurred in front of a bakery in the mainly Shiite Amil neighbourhood around 6.30pm, half an hour before the start of iftar, Interior Ministry and medical officials said. “People were queuing for bread at the time,” an Interior Ministry official said, adding that 15 people had also been wounded. “We received the bodies of 10 people, all of them men,” a hospital official said. “We also admitted seven people suffering shrapnel wounds.”
Meanwhile,
| US and Iraqi troops killed 14 suspected Al Qaeda fighters in northern and eastern Iraq on Saturday, a day after Osama Bin LadenÂ’s group claimed the killing of a prominent Sunni tribal leader. |
During an operation near the northern oil-refining town of Baiji on Saturday, it said, “several enemy elements moved into tactical position”. Iraqi and US forces called for close air support “which engaged and killed nine terrorists,” the statement said, adding that one suspected militant was arrested. Four suspected Al Qaeda operatives were killed when they lobbed grenades and opened fire on coalition forces during a separate raid north of Muqdadiyah in restive Diyala province, the military said.
“Responding in self-defence, coalition forces returned fire and killed them,” it said, adding that two suspected militants were arrested in the operation. Another raid in the main northern city of Mosul left one militant killed, while a similar operation around Baghdad netted another 14 suspected Al Qaeda members.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq said in an Internet statement on Friday that it killed Abdul Sattar Abu Reesha, a key US ally who was killed in a bomb attack in western Anbar province on Thursday. It called Abu Reesha “one of the dogs and standard bearers of the crusade of [US President George W] Bush”.