IRAQ: Bombings and shootings kill up to 61 people in Iraq undermining the government's attempts to show it can suppress violence

Record ID: 352159

  • Title: IRAQ: Bombings and shootings kill up to 61 people in Iraq undermining the government's attempts to show it can suppress violence
  • Date: 2nd August 2006
  • Summary: (W3) KARRADA, BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AUGUST 1, 2006) (REUTERS) SMOKE RISING FROM SITE OF BLAST U.S. HELICOPTER IN THE AIR BURNING CAR AT SITE OF ATTACK WOUNDED MAN BLEEDING FROM MOUTH BEING HELPED BY PEOPLE
  • Embargoed: 17th August 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVADCNX8QETQMFBTLOH7LY6F9LU7
  • Story Text: Bombings and shootings killed up to 61 people in Iraq on Tuesday (August 1), including at least 26 soldiers, undermining the government's attempts to show it can suppress unremitting violence.
    A suicide bomber in a car targeted soldiers collecting their salaries from a bank in central Baghdad, killing at least 10 people, including an elderly women. The blast also wounded 17 people, including civilians.
    The attack took place at the same spot in the relatively stable district of Karrada where a car bomb and mortars killed at least 27 people last week.
    A Reuters reporter saw bodies that were charred or ripped apart by the blast lying on the pavement on a street lined with shops.
    The United States plans to boost its troop levels in Baghdad in a bid to improve security but long-term stability and an American withdrawal, depends on the performance of Iraqi forces.
    In north eastern Baghdad, a suicide car bomb targeting an Iraqi army checkpoint exploded on Palestine Street, wounding two civilians, a police source said.
    "We were manning a checkpoint when we saw a car driving in a high speed, we opened fire on it but the driver did not stop. We deployed in the area and started shooting at the car, after that it exploded. The blast did not cause any casualties," said Ahmed Jabbar, an Iraqi soldier.
    A car bomb also killed at least seven people in the town of Muqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad, police said.
    Police said 15 people were also injured in the attack in front of the hospital in Muqdadiya, 90 km (50 miles) northeast of the capital.
    "A car bomb exploded near a police patrol, which was driving in the area. Four policemen were killed in the attack and another police vehicle was damaged, hurting civilians who were in the area," said Mahmoud Hussein Latef, an eye witness in the area of blast.
    Muqdadiya is part of Diyala province, one of the country's most violent areas.
    Late on Monday (July 31), the U.S. forces supported by Iraqi forces raided a Shi'ite Ahal al-Bayt mosque and a nearby house in western Baghdad, wounding number of civilians, witnesses said.
    They said that the U.S. forces damaged a number of civilian cars during the raid claiming a school was also hot in the raid. U.S. and Iraqi forces would not comment on the raid.
    Meanwhile a roadside bomb killed at least 20 Iraqi soldiers north of Baghdad. A source at the Iraqi and U.S. joint military co-ordination centre said the bomb struck a bus carrying about 35 soldiers travelling between the towns of Tikrit and Baiji. Thirteen soldiers were wounded.
    The source said the toll could be higher.
    In the north-western town of Tal Afar, a car bomb killed three more Iraqi soldiers and wounded four, police said.
    U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have agreed to send thousands more troops to tackle sectarian and insurgent violence in Baghdad.
    Maliki has already launched a crackdown, but it has failed to ease communal violence which has raised fears of civil war.
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