60 Die As Car Bombs Rip Through Crowded Areas In Iraq
By Kim Gamel, Associated Press Writer
Car bombs and a suicide attacker struck crowded areas in Baghdad and
former insurgent strongholds to the north and west of the capital
Tuesday, killing nearly 60 people and breaking a recent lull in
violence in the predominantly Sunni areas.
The attacks were a deadly reminder of the threat posed by suspected
Sunni insurgents even as clashes between ****ite militia fighters and
U.S.-Iraqi forces continued elsewhere.
The U.S. military condemned the bombings and said they appeared to
have been carried out by al-Qaida in Iraq.
The first blast occurred in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad,
when a car parked in front of a restaurant exploded just before noon
across the street from the central courthouse and other government
offices.
One survivor described a huge fire that sent black smoke billowing
into the sky and left charred bodies inside their cars.
"I was on my way to the government office when a big explosion
occurred nearby," said the witness, who would only identify himself by
his nickname Abu Ali. "As I approached the site, I saw cars on fire,
burned bodies and damaged shops damaged with shattered glass
everywhere."
At least 40 people were killed and 70 wounded in the blast, according
to hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because
they weren't authorized to release the information.
AP Television News footage showed many of the bodies covered in crisp
white sheets in the main hospital's courtyard while the emergency room
inside was overwhelmed with the wounded.
The U.S. military in northern Iraq gave a slightly lower toll, saying
35 Iraqi citizens were killed, including a policeman, and 66 wounded
in the attack.
It was the deadliest bombing in Iraq since March 6 when a twin bombing
killed 68 people in a crowded shopping district in the central Baghdad
district of Karradah.
A suicide attacker on a motorcycle later drove up to a kebab
restaurant in Ramadi and detonated his explosives vest around 12:30
p.m., killing at least 13 people including three policemen and
wounding 20 other people, police Capt. Abu Saif al-Anbari said.
Hospital officials said two children were among the dead.
Police initially thought a parked car had exploded in the industrial
area but later determined it was a suicide attack, al-Anbari said.
Ahmed al-Dulaimi, a 27-year-old mechanic, was at the restaurant when
the blast occurred but escaped injury because he was sitting at a back
table. He said his cousin, who owned the restaurant, had been killed.
"Pieces of flesh flew into the air and the roof fell over us. I saw
the horrible sight of bodies without heads or without legs or hands,"
he said.
Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, is the capital of Anbar province and
has largely been sealed off by checkpoints.
Like Baqouba, the area has seen a sharp decline in violence in recent
months as Sunni tribal leaders have joined forces with the Americans
against al-Qaida in Iraq.
The U.S. military said overall attacks in Diyala province have dropped
more than 76 percent since June 2007.
"Although attacks such as today's event are tragic, it is not
indicative of the overall security situation in Baqouba," Maj. Mike
Garcia, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Diyala, said in a statement.
A parked car bomb also targeted a police patrol in central Baghdad,
killing four civilians who were passing by and wounding 15 other
people, police said.
Elsewhere in northern Iraq, a double car bombing in Mosul wounded
three Iraqi policemen and 15 civilians, the U.S. military said. Mosul
is considered one of the last urban strongholds for al-Qaida in Iraq
and the American and Iraqi militaries have promised a security
crackdown.
The relative calm in predominantly Sunni areas has coincided with
clashes between ****ite militia fighters and U.S.-Iraqi forces in
Baghdad and the oil-rich southern city of Basra.
But while the Bush administration has begun citing what it calls
Iranian-backed ****ite factions as the greatest threat to Iraq's
stability, American commanders have consistently warned that al-Qaida-
led insurgents continue to pose a serious danger.
In other violence Tuesday, U.S. soldiers backed by an airstrike killed
six militants during clashes in the Sudayrah area near Baghdad's main
****ite militia stronghold of Sadr City, the military said.
Iraqi police in the area claimed that two boys were among those killed
in the airstrike, but the military said no civilian casualties were
re****ted.
Lt. Col. Steve Stover said separately that American troops killed four
militants who fired rocket-propelled grenades at a tank elsewhere in
the area.
Clashes also broke out later Tuesday in Sadr City, leaving four
militiamen killed and 15 others wounded, Iraqi police and hospital
officials said.
================
Associated Press writers Hamid Ahmed and Sinan Salaheddin contributed
to this re****t.
___
-C-
|
