07 Aug 2009 15:22:26 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Suicide car bomber kills 38 in northern Iraq
* Roadside bombs strike Baghdad minibuses carrying pilgrims
(Updates Mosul death toll, adds governor's quote, paragraph 9)
By Jamal al-Badrani
MOSUL, Iraq, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed 38 people as they left a Shi'ite Muslim mosque just outside the volatile northern Iraqi city of Mosul, officials said on Friday, while a series of bombs in Baghdad killed six Shi'ite pilgrims.
Police said 95 people were wounded in the suicide bombing, one of several attacks in recent weeks targeting Shi'ite religious gatherings. A week ago a series of blasts outside Shi'ite mosques in Baghdad killed 31 people.
Sunni Islamist militants such as al Qaeda, who consider Shi'ites heretics, are often blamed for such attacks.
"I was in the house when this explosion happened. I hurried to the mosque to search for my father in the ruins...I found him seriously wounded, and took him to hospital, but he died," said Khalil Qasim, 19, crying.
Mosul authorities urged citizens to donate blood and appealed for construction vehicles to lift debris trapping victims of the attack, which took place in Shreikhan, a majority Shi'ite Turkmen village just north of Mosul city.
Bombings and shootings are reported almost daily in Mosul.
The insurgency in Iraq has waned in the last 18 months, but insurgents have been able to hide out in the mountainous areas around Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, and have exploited divisions between Mosul's feuding Arabs and Kurds.
The dispute in the northern province of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, threatens to split the province and inflame tensions that could threaten Iraq's long-term stability.
"There are parties that seek to create chaos inside Mosul by dragging Iraq into sectarian fighting," Nineveh's governor, Atheel al-Nujaifi, said.
SQUARE ONE
Many Iraqis also fear attacks on Shi'ites may re-ignite the sectarian slaughter between Sunnis and Shi'ites that has only abated in the last 18 months. Tens of thousands have been killed in the bloodshed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
"These bombings are an attempt to return Iraq to square one," said analyst and professor Hameed Fadhel.
"I expect these attacks to rise the closer we get to the elections. The coming months will be a very critical time for Iraq," he added, referring to national polls due in January.
Politicians are in the throes of discussing coalitions, and violence may make cross-sectarian alliances difficult.
In Baghdad, roadside bombs exploded as minibuses carrying Shi'ite Muslims home from pilgrimage a day earlier passed by.
Roadside bombs struck two minibuses in separate incidents in the poor Baghdad Shi'ite district of Sadr City and another roadside bomb struck a minibus in east Baghdad, a hospital source said, killing a total of six and wounding 24.
Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims poured into Iraq's holy city of Kerbala on Thursday to mark the birth of Imam Mohammed al-Mehdi, a Messiah-like figure Shi'ites believe vanished centuries ago and will return to bring peace on earth.
The event was the second big religious gathering in Iraq since the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from urban centres in June, which thrust Iraqi security forces into the leading role.
Thursday's pilgrimage and the previous event passed largely peacefully, but insurgent attacks are still common, raising doubts about the Iraqi security forces' ability to stand alone. (Additional reporting by Muhanad Mohammed, Waleed Ibrahim and Khalid al-Ansary in Baghdad; writing by Mohammed Abbas and Yara Bayoumy; Editing by Charles Dick)
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Bombs in Baghdad and northern Iraq kill 41
10 Aug 2009 05:41:16 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Northern Iraq truck bombs kill 25
* Baghdad car bombs target construction workers, kill 16
(Updates casualty toll in north Iraq blasts, details)
BAGHDAD, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Vehicle bombs in Baghdad and northern Iraq killed 41 people on Monday, police said, the latest of several major attacks since U.S. troops withdrew from towns and cities in June.
Two truck bombs killed 25 people and wounded 75 near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, police said. Last week, a suicide car bomber killed 38 people as they left a Shi'ite Muslim mosque just outside Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad.
The truck bombs flattened some 30 homes in the predominantly Shi'ite village of Khazna, 20 km (12 miles) north of Mosul.
Bombings and shootings are reported almost daily in and around Mosul, capital of Nineveh province, where disputes between Arabs and Kurds threaten to split the region and inflame tensions that could threaten Iraq's long-term stability.
In Baghdad, two car bombs targeting labourers killed 16 people and wounded 81 in predominantly Shi'ite areas in the southwest of the capital, police said.
The insurgency in Iraq has waned in the last 18 months, but has remained stubborn in Mosul and a few other areas.
Several large-scale attacks in recent weeks have raised doubts about the capability of Iraqi forces to cope alone after U.S. combat troops withdrew from urban centres in June.
Last week, a string of bombings targeted Shi'ite Muslims in Baghdad and northern Iraq. (Reporting by Baghdad bureau; writing by Yara Bayoumy and Mohammed Abbas)
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By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer Kim Gamel, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 4 mins ago
BAGHDAD – A double truck bombing Monday in Mosul and blasts in Baghdad brought the Iraqi death toll to more than 100 in four days, the worst spasm of violence the country has suffered since U.S. forces left the cities.
The bloodshed threatened to chip away at public confidence in the U.S.-backed government as it seeks to project a sense of normalcy ahead of next year's national elections, including an announcement last week that all concrete blast walls will be gone from Baghdad's main roads by mid-September.
The Mosul bombing, like another Friday on the fringes of the ethnically tense city, targeted ethnic minorities, indicating that insurgents are seeking out relatively undefended targets to maximize casualties as the strapped Iraqi army focuses its efforts on more central areas.
The attacks in Mosul, which the U.S. military has called the last stronghold of al-Qaida, killed 28 people Monday and 44 on Friday. It's the first time since the U.S. turned urban security over to the Iraqis on June 30 that insurgents have managed to stage two massive attacks in short order.
Another 22 Iraqis, mostly day laborers, died in two bombings in Baghdad on Monday. Seven Shiite pilgrims also were killed by bombings in Baghdad on Friday.
The latest deaths raise to at least 158 the number killed in the first 10 days of August — more than half the 309 killed in all of July, according to an Associated Press tally.
"We call on the government to make clear the real security situation in Iraq," said lawmaker Alaa Maki of the minority Sunnis. "We are not convinced by statements that everything is OK ... Iraqi people want security."
However, it's difficult to detect a trend. The rate of bombings tends to rise or fall month by month. This could mean the insurgents are trying to keep the authorities off balance, or that they are too weak to carry out the sustained campaigns that typified earlier years of the U.S. occupation.
Ayad al-Samarraie, the parliamentary speaker, insisted the upsurge was not a direct result of the Americans withdrawing. "The American troops are still in their camps and the intelligence coordination and mobilization assistance still exists," he said.
The U.S. military has stressed that violence overall is low compared with past year. American commanders also have warned al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents would try to re-ignite sectarian violence but said Shiites are showing restraint and not retaliating as they did more than two years ago when the country came to the brink of civil war.
Army Col. John R. Robinson, a U.S. military spokesman, said attacks nationwide have averaged 100 a week or fewer for several months, compared with about 200 per week last year.
"We have consistently said that insurgents and terrorists will attempt to challenge the Iraqi security forces, as well as the commitment of the Iraqi people to a peaceful future," Robinson said in an e-mail.
"They are targeting innocent civilians, Christian churches, mosques, and police," he wrote, but added: "We are encouraged that Iraqis are staying the course, away from sectarianism."
The two explosives-laden trucks didn't draw suspicion because they had been parked about 500 yards (meters) apart overnight in an alley in Khazna, just east of Mosul. The village has a population of some 3,000 people who are nearly all Shabak, a small, mostly Shiite ethnic group with their own distinct language and belief system.
They are part of the mosaic of ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq's north that include Yazidis, Assyrian Christians, Turkomen and Kurds, all of whom have been targeted in the past. The village which was hit Friday and its mosque flattened is Turkomen.
No one claimed responsibility for either of the Mosul bombings, but they bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents who remain active in Mosul and surrounding areas.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene of rescuers searching through the rubble of some 30 houses that were destroyed. Many villagers were sleeping on their roofs because of the summer heat. "If we had slept inside, we would have been killed," said Mahmoud Hussein, 28.
The 5 a.m. explosions left a 7-foot (2 meter) crater and reduced the houses to piles of bricks, twisted metal and smoking debris.
There were conflicting death tolls, common in Iraqi bombings. Police and hospital officials said at least 28 people were killed, the U.S. military said at least 35 were confirmed dead, while Qusai Abbas al-Shabaki, who represents the Shabak minority on the provincial council, said 43 died.
He accused security forces of failing to protect the area on the eastern outskirts of Mosul.
Also on Monday, a string of bombings in mainly Shiite areas in Baghdad killed at least 22 people, most of them laborers.
One bomb was left in a cement bag. Another apparently was in a minibus. "Some passengers, women and children, got off the minibus there. Then it drove a few meters and exploded. We unloaded four people dead," said a witness, Hassan Mohammed.
Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki ordered Defense Ministry officials to do all they could to "chase the terrorist cells so they can no longer find a safe place to put together their plans or be able to carry them out."
___
Associated Press Writers Chelsea J. Carter and Hamid Ahmed in Baghdad and the AP News Research Center in New York contributed to this report.
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* Suicide bomb toll rises to 21 dead, 32 wounded
* Attack targets town inhabited by Yazidis
* Latest in string of attacks in volatile area
(Raises death toll)
By Jamal al-Badrani
MOSUL, Iraq, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers detonated vests packed with explosives in a cafe in a town near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday, killing 21 people, a health official said, the latest attack in a restive region.
There has been a series of high-profile bombings in and around Mosul in the past fortnight and the U.S. military said on Tuesday that a resilient al Qaeda had set off a string of deadly blasts.
Thursday's attack took place in Sinjar, 390 km (240 miles) northwest of Baghdad, a town whose inhabitants are members of a pre-Islamic Kurdish sect called Yazidis who live in northern Iraq and Syria.
An attack on the Yazidi community two years ago was one of the deadliest bomb attacks in Iraq since the start of 2007, killing and wounding nearly 800 people.
Bombings and shootings are reported almost daily in and around Mosul, the capital of the northern province of Nineveh, where insurgents have exploited disputes between Arabs and Kurds over territory and oil to remain effective.
A lack of coordination between Kurdish and Arab officials has made it easier for them to operate. Insurgents have also sought refuge in remote mountainous areas around Mosul, eluding capture by security forces.
The blasts were the latest in a series of attacks that cast doubt on Iraq's ability to defend itself against insurgents before a U.S. withdrawal from the country by the end of 2011.
This week two truck bombs flattened some 40 homes in the mostly Shi'ite village of Khazna near Mosul, killing 30 people.
No group has taken responsibility for recent attacks, but they are probably aimed at inflaming tension between Iraq's Arab majority and ethnic Kurd minority. They could also be aimed at undermining the credibility of the Shi'ite Arab-led government.
A feud between the Arab-led government in Baghdad and the largely autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in north Iraq has come dangerously close to all-out war.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday it was "very nervous" about Kurd-Arab tensions, which U.S. officials describe as the greatest threat to Iraqi stability.
"These terrorist operations are carried out by al Qaeda and other groups who do not want to see stability in this area," said Sinjar mayor Dakhil Hassoun.
Kurds see parts of majority Arab Nineveh and other areas in northern Iraq as belonging to an ancient homeland and want them included in Kurdistan, their semi-autonomous northern enclave.
(Writing by Yara Bayoumy, editing by Michael Roddy)
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