Explosions hit Iraq holy city of Najaf, 27 dead, 110 wounded

14 Jan 2010 18:14:52 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Updates toll, adds details, quote)

NAJAF, Iraq, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Three bombs killed at least two people in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf and injured dozens on Thursday, shattering a period of relative calm in one of Shi'ite Islam's holiest centres, officials and police said.

Two roadside bombs and a bomb planted in a parked car detonated less than a kilometre (half a mile) from the revered Imam Ali shrine in the centre of Najaf, about 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad, officials said.

In addition to the two dead, at least 45 were wounded in the blasts, a police officer assigned to one of Najaf's two main hospitals said.

Hassan al-Zubaidi, deputy governor of Najaf province, said at least one person was killed and 72 were wounded in the coordinated attack.

"What happened today in Najaf is a part of what is happening in the whole of Iraq, an increase in violence ... They want to affect the coming election," he said.

"In any case, what happened today in Najaf is an indication that we need to reconsider the performance of our security forces."

A police source in Baghdad said the blasts had killed at least 25 people and wounded 72, but officials in Najaf denied the higher toll.

Najaf, in Iraq's Shi'ite south, has been relatively free of violence in the past year. The sectarian slaughter unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion has largely subsided across Iraq but U.S. and Iraqi authorities expect attacks to increase ahead of key parliamentary elections in March.

(Reporting by Khaled Farhan and Waleed Ibrahim, writing by Jim Loney; Editing by Michael Christie and Michael Roddy)


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Blasts toll in Najaf rises to 27
DPA/Baghdad

An Iraqi man and his daughter receive medical treatment at a hospital yesterday after a car bomb attack in Najaf on Thursday
At least 27 people were killed and 111 injured in a series of explosions that hit the southern Iraqi city of Najaf on Thursday, medics said yesterday as they updated the death toll.
Three homemade bombs rocked Najaf, home to some of Shia Islam’s highest educational institutions and shrines, within minutes of each other on Thursday.
Two of the blasts targeted a market located in a street leading to Imam Ali shrine.
The third was a car bomb nearby that detonated when people gathered at the scene, sources said.
Two Al Qaeda militants were arrested yesterday in Karbala, following a confession by a senior member of the network picked up in the city a day earlier, police said.
Khaled al-Khanfisi, wanted by police on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks, was arrested on Thursday at the entrance to the Shia holy city after a tip from intelligence agencies.
The two militants were arrested after al-Khanfisi confessed they were planning to attack pilgrims attending a ceremony known as the ‘Arbaine of Imam Hussein’, police said.
Arbaine marks the 40th day after the Shia holy day of Ashura.

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BAGHDAD, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A former Iraqi airline pilot who has been in custody for seven months was accused on Saturday by Iraqi authorities of orchestrating the 2003 bombing of the U.N. Baghdad headquarters in which 22 people were killed.

Then-U.N. envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, a Brazilian, was among those who died when a truck bomb exploded at the Canal Hotel, which served as the U.N. operations centre before and just after the 2003 U.S. invasion.

The suspect, identified as Ali Hussein al-Azzawi or Abu Imad, has been charged with supervising several other attacks also, including an attack on an Iraqi army troop carrier in 2006 and bombings in eastern Baghdad in 2007 and 2008, Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said.

"He is the direct perpetrator of many terrorist attacks and on top of them, supervised the planning of the bomb attack on the U.N. headquarters in August 2003 ... and he is responsible for linking Qaeda terrorist networks in Europe and Iraq," Moussawi said at a news conference.

Azzawi was arrested in Baghdad on June 26, Moussawi said. He did not say where the suspect had been for the last seven months or why the charges were announced only now.

Moussawi showed videotapes of what he described as the confessions of three men, two Iraqis and a Saudi, who said they had received orders from Azzawi.

The Saudi, who identified himself as Mohammad Abdullah Hassan, said Azzawi acted as a financial manager for al Qaeda in addition to planning attacks.

"He used to distribute money to the soldiers and heads of the districts (in Diyala province) when he came to meet us," said Hassan, who appeared in the video with several days' growth of beard and wearing a dark blue prison uniform.

Moussawi said Azzawi also negotiated ransoms with the relatives of foreigners kidnapped in Iraq, but did not give further details.

Moussawi said Azzawi had been a pilot for Iraqi Airways, the state-owned airline. He played a short video clip of Azzawi in which the suspect only gave his name, birth date and address. (Editing by Jim Loney)