57 die in suicide attack on Kurdish party offices

Two suicide bombers struck at the offices of two rival Kurdish parties in near simultaneous attacks today as hundreds of Iraqis gathered to celebrate a Muslim holiday. At least 57 people were killed and more than 235 were wounded, officials said.

One Kurdish minister said the death toll could rise above 100.

The attacks at the Irbil offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan occurred as party leaders were receiving hundreds of visitors to mark the start of the four-day Muslim holiday, Eid Al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice.

The dead included the governor of the region, ministers in the local administration and several senior officials, Mohammed Ihsan, the minister for human rights for the Kurdish regional government, told The Associated Press. The US command in Baghdad said it had no information about the attack.

Irbil city morgue director Tawana Kareem told the AP that 57 bodies were brought to the morgue and “figures are increasing.” At least 235 people were admitted to the city’s three hospitals with injuries, medical sources said.

“These figures are estimates but I believe about 60 people were killed at the PUK and about 80 at the KDP. There are a tremendous number of injured,” Ihsan said.

“On the first day of Eid we receive people and well wishers and that’s why security wasn’t as tight as during the rest of the days,” he said. “They (the attackers) took advantage of this.”

US military officials had said they were prepared for any upsurge of violence in connection with the holiday. The start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan last year marked a sharp escalation in violence against the US-led coalition and its Iraqi allies.

Ihsan said the targeted sites were the parties’ branch offices, about 13 kilometres (8 miles) apart.

A state of emergency has been declared in the Kurdish area, and doctors have been asked to return from Eid vacation. An urgent appeal has been issued to residents to donate blood.

Ihsan said those among the dead are Irbil Governor Akram Mintik, Deputy Prime Minister Sami Abdul Rahman, Minister of Council of Ministers Affairs Shawkat Sheik Yazdin and Agriculture Minister Saad Abdullah. Irbil is about 200 miles north of the capital, Baghdad.

The PUK and KDP parties control the Kurdish-dominated provinces of northern Iraq where most of the country’s minority Kurds live.

No one claimed responsibility. However, a radical Kurdish group, Ansar al-Islam, operates in the Kurdish region and has been linked by US officials to al-Qaida.

Thousands of people crowded outside Irbil’s hospital, looking for loved ones, but they were kept out by police.

Officials said the top Kurdish leaders were greeting people when the attacker approached them and detonated the explosives strapped around his body.

The second attack took place at about the same time in the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan across town, PUK spokesman Kadhim Ali said. He said several people were killed and injured in the PUK attack.

The attacks coincided with a visit to Baghdad by US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who arrived on Saturday to boost the morale of troops. Wolfowitz, whose visit was not disclosed in advance of his arrival, was planning to watch the American football Super Bowl with US troops on Sunday, but it was not known where.

The suicide bombings came a day after a car bomb outside a police station in the northern city of Mosul killed at least nine people and wounded 45. It was unclear if that attack was a suicide bombing or the driver fled before the explosion. US officials have said recent vehicle bombings and suicide attacks in Iraq bear the mark of al-Qaida.

Hours later, a mortar attack hit a Baghdad neighbourhood, killing five people and wounding four.

Also Saturday, three US soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division were killed in a roadside bombing near the northern oil centre of Kirkuk. Their deaths brought to 522 the number of American service members who have died since the Iraq war began March 20.