Triple car bombings kill 17 across Iraq

THREE car bombs rocked northern Baghdad yesterday morning within a span of half an hour while another struck a Shi’ite holy city, killing at least 17 and wounding 44.

Britain’s Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said up to five British personnel were killed in a military helicopter crash on Saturday that triggered unrest in the southern city of Basra. The ministry did not elaborate.

Iraqi authorities had said at least four British soldiers were killed and the chopper was brought down by a shoulder-fired missile — a weapon widely available among insurgent groups and armed militias in Iraq.

British Defence Secretary Des Browne said the ensuing confrontation between Iraqis and British soldiers who rushed to the scene did not mean that the security situation in Basra had deteriorated. Jubilant Iraqis pelted British troops with stones and firebombs and chanted slogans in support of radical Shi’ite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

“It is not an indication of the state of either the city of Basra or the provinces that we have responsibility for,” Browne said in an interview. “Day on day, the local forces are coming into control of this area because of the training that we have been able to give them and with our allies.”

The car bombing in Karbala, home to one of the two holiest Shi’ite shrines, killed five people and wounded 19 near the provincial government building, said Hassanein al-Zubeidi, an aide to the governor, and police spokesman Rahman Mishawi.

It occurred at 9.30am — 10 minutes after the last blast in Baghdad — as workers were returning to their offices after the Islamic weekend, said al-Zubeidi. The bomber got within 300 yards of the heavily fortified government building, and set off the explosives in an area of heavy traffic. Eight cars were burned.

The worst strike in Baghdad — a suicide car bombing — targeted an Iraqi army patrol at 9.20am in the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Azamiyah. Ten people were killed and 15 wounded, most of them Iraqi soldiers, police Lt Col Falah al-Mohammedawi said.

The first two Baghdad bombs targeted police patrols. Insurgents often target Iraqi police and soldiers, trying to discourage Sunni Arabs from joining government security forces.

A bomb at 8.50am missed the patrol but killed one civilian and wounded five, police Lt Ahmed Mohammed Ali said.

Ten minutes later, the second car bomb went off near the private Ibn al-Haitham College in northern Baghdad. One civilian was killed and six were wounded, al-Mohammedawi said.

In London, Browne, who was appointed Friday in a Cabinet shuffle, said he has been in constant contact with British military commanders in Iraq and they have told him that “calm and control had been restored in Basra and that people were going about their ordinary business”.