Iraq bombing campaign continues unabated
Nearly 40 people have died in a rash of car bombings in Iraq’s capital in the space of 12 hours, including four co-ordinated blasts early today in central Baghdad that killed 15 and wounded 28 more, police said.
Today’s carnage in the capital’s Karradah area came on the heels of bloodshed late yesterday that included four car bombs exploding within minutes of one another.
At least 23 people were killed in western Baghdad’s Shula neighbourhood and a nearby suburb. In Shula alone 19 people were killed.
Most residents of Karradah and Shula are from Iraq’s Shiite majority, while the insurgents are almost exclusively Sunni Arabs, a minority that had dominated Iraq until Saddam Hussein’s ousting two years ago.
The attacks served as a chilling reminder of how potent militants remain in the capital despite around-the-clock American and Iraqi troop patrols.
Later today, the top US military commander in the Gulf disputed a contention by Vice-President Dick Cheney that the Iraqi insurgency was in its “last throes” and told Congress today its strength was basically undiminished from six months ago.
“I believe there are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six months ago,” General John Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The explosions on both days were carried out at times when large crowds were on Baghdad’s streets.
The militant group Ansar al-Sunnah Army said in a web statement that it was responsible for the Shula blasts.
Today’s explosions in Karradah took place after 4am Irish time, police said. Four car bombs exploded and Iraqi police said they later defused a fifth car bomb timed to go off.
The car bombs exploded nearly simultaneously, police Lieutenant Colonel Salman Abdul Karim and officer Ahmed Hatam al-Sharie said. Five police officers were among the 15 dead.
In a separate development, one of Saudi Arabia’s most-wanted terror suspects was killed by an airstrike during fighting with US and Iraqi forces during "Operation Spear" near the Syrian border in northwest Iraq, the leader of the al Qaida in Iraq group said in a web statement posted today.
Abdullah Mohammed Rashid al-Roshoud had been 24 on a list of the 26 most-wanted terrorist leaders put out by Saudi Arabia two years ago and was one of only three militants on the list still at large.
In another incident early today, the military said a US-led raid destroyed a hideout in Baghdad used by extremists associated with the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who heads al Qaida in Iraq.
Elsewhere, a car bomb detonated by remote control hit an Iraqi police patrol in Tuz Khormato, north of Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding nine civilians, police Brigadier General Sarhad Qadr said. Tuz Khormato is 55 miles south of the northern city of Kirkuk.
In all, at least 19 people were killed today across Iraq, including three others – two brothers and a niece who were shot south of Baghdad in the town of Iskandariyah when two gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms broke into their house, police said.
