IRAQ: Iraq vows action after truck bomb kills 135 while US military adjust tactics after insurgents shoot down helicopters

Record ID: 352251

  • Title: IRAQ: Iraq vows action after truck bomb kills 135 while US military adjust tactics after insurgents shoot down helicopters
  • Date: 4th February 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UNIDENTIFIED, OLD MAN CRYING AND SAYING: "What did we do?" PEOPLE NEAR BURNT-OUT, BLACKENED AND DEMOLISHED BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 19th February 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA3C9SSDTV61BWHF6K4D6L4QF2C
  • Story Text: Iraq's government on Sunday (February 4) renewed its pledge to crack down on militants after a massive suicide truck bomb killed 135 people in a mainly Shi'ite area of Baghdad.
    Saturday's (February 3) attack was the deadliest single bombing since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. It shocked even Iraqis accustomed to the relentless violence that threatens to plunge the country into full-scale sectarian civil war.
    "And we are going to eliminate the threat, that is used to threaten people, people of different sects and ethnic communities," Iraqi Government Spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh told reporters in Baghdad.
    The U.S. military is also adjusting its tactics in Iraq after four helicopters were shot down over the past two weeks, U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said at a joint press conference with Al-Dabbagh.
    Caldwell said the helicopters had been shot down in four separate incidents in which 21 U.S. servicemen and private security contractors were killed, confirming earlier witness reports and leaks from within the U.S. military.
    "There's been an ongoing effort ever since we've been here to target our helicopters obviously based on what we've seen, we are already making adjustments in our tactics, techniques and procedures as to how we employ our helicopters in support of Iraqi security forces and coalition forces and we are making those appropriate changes" Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad.
    The U.S. military relies heavily on helicopters to transport its troops or launch air strikes against suspected militants holed up in buildings.
    In fresh violence, a series of bomb attacks and drive-by shootings killed 16 people in Baghdad on Sunday, police and residents said.
    A car bomb exploded in a main bus terminal in central Baghdad, killing four people and wounding seven, police said.
    The blast, which took place in Bab al-Muadham district damaged a number of small buses queuing up at the terminal and sending pieces of car bomb scattered across the street.
    Police and Iraqiya state television said US forces wounded Suhad Shakir, an anchor working for Iraqiya, when they fired on her car near the Foreign Ministry in central Baghdad.
    They said that Shakir who was critically wounded was moved to the Baghdad's Al-Yarmouk Hospital.
    Elsewhere, grief-stricken people of Baghdad's Sadriya area began erected large funeral tents to receive condolences for those killed in Saturday's suicide car bomb.
    Around 1,000 people have been killed across Iraq in the past week in suicide bombings, shootings and fighting between security forces and militants, according to figures compiled by Reuters from official sources.
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