24 Nov 2011 17:52
(Updates toll, adds details, quotes)
BASRA, Iraq, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Three bombs exploded in a market in Iraq's southern oil city of Basra on Thursday, killing at least ten people and wounding dozens, security sources said.
Basra, 420 km (240 miles) southeast of Baghdad, is the largest city in the mainly Shi'ite south and the heart of Iraq's oil industry. It hosts a major conference for international oil executives and industry officials starting on Friday.
Two bombs hidden in a three-wheeled motorbike exploded in quick succession at the market in northern Basra, and a third bomb went off a short time later as people gathered at the scene, two police sources said.
Noufal Hassan, the owner of a mobile phone shop near the scene, said he heard two explosions at the "Thieves Market".
"I immediately went out of my shop and saw the blood ... limbs, hands and legs, bodies spread on the streets," he said. "The nearest shops were shattered and the cars were burned."
The blasts underscored Iraq's tenuous security situation as the remaining 18,000 U.S. troops leave by year-end, nearly nine years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi officials have said militants may step up attacks as U.S. troops withdraw.
Iraq is still plagued by a lethal Sunni Muslim insurgency and Shi'ite Muslim militias that carry out scores of bombings and other attacks each month.
Basra's four-day oil conference is expected to host senior government oil officials and executives from international companies such as Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell .
Hospital sources put the Basra bomb toll at ten dead and about 55 wounded, while a police source said 12 people were killed and 42 wounded.
Most of the victims were police and soldiers, including several senior leaders, said Ali al-Maliki, head of the Basra provincial council security committee.
"The fingerprints of Baathists and al Qaeda are clear in these explosions," he said.
Iraqi government officials frequently accuse former members of Saddam Hussein's banned Baath Party of trying to destabilise Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fragile coalition government.
The government recently rounded up more than 600 former military leaders and Baathists, accusing them of plotting to seize power when U.S. troops leave.
In the city of Ramadi, in western Anbar province, a bomb exploded in a crowded market, wounding five people, police said.
(Reporting by Aref Mohammed; Writing by Jim Loney; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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At least 20 killed in Iraq bombings
Thu, 24 Nov 2011 18:49:38 GMT
At least 20 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in the Iraqi city of Basra when multiple bomb explosions rocked the southern port city.
Three bombs exploded in Basra on Thursday, including a roadside bomb and a motorcycle bomb which detonated simultaneously at about 6:40 p.m. local time (1540 GMT) in a market in the city center, AFP quoted an interior ministry official as saying.
A third roadside bomb exploded as people gathered at the scene of the earlier attacks, according to the official, who said some 70 people were wounded in the bombings.
Iraqi security forces arrived at the scene of the explosions and cordoned off the market.
On November 3, 11 people were killed and 38 wounded in bomb and gun attacks against police and pro-government militiamen across Iraq.
The deadly attack came a day after three motorbike bombings in Basra killed at least nine people and injured at least 37 others.
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Multiple Baghdad blasts kill at least 13 people
26 Nov 2011 12:22
A view shows Tigris River in Baghdad September 1, 2010. REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen
(Updates toll)
BAGHDAD, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Three bombs exploded in a commercial Baghdad district and another blast hit the city's western outskirts on Saturday, killing at least 13 people, police and hospital sources said.
The first blast hit Baghdad's central Bab al-Sharji district followed by two other explosions in a street nearby, in attacks highlighting the fact that violence is still troubling Iraq as the last U.S. troops prepare to withdraw at the end of the year.
A police source said the explosions killed at least seven people and wounded 29 others. Two other security sources said the blasts killed eight and wounded at least 13.
Earlier Saturday, six more people were killed and eight were wounded on the outskirts of Baghdad when a roadside bomb hit a truck carrying construction workers in Abu Ghraib to the west of the capital.
Attacks in Iraq have dropped sharply since the peak of sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but bombings, assaults and assassinations by Sunni Muslim insurgents and Shi'ite Muslim militias still occur nearly daily almost nine years after the U.S. invasion.
The remaining 18,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are packing up by the end of the year when a security pact with Baghdad expires. Talks to keep some U.S. troops in Iraq as trainers fell apart over the question of legal immunity for U.S. soldiers.
Iraqi and U.S. officials say Iraq's national military is capable of containing stubborn violence, but they are concerned about gaps the U.S. withdrawal will leave in their capabilities in areas like air defence and intelligence gathering. (Reporting by Waleed Ibrahim and Kareem Raheem; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Alessandra Rizzo)
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