IRAQ: Baghdad roadside bomb kills four; Car bomb in Dujail kills 30

Record ID: 352288

  • Title: IRAQ: Baghdad roadside bomb kills four; Car bomb in Dujail kills 30
  • Date: 14th September 2008
  • Summary: (BN10) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (SEPTEMBER 13, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS POLICE VEHICLES AT BLAST SCENE CIVILIAN CAR RIDDLED WITH SHRAPNEL AT SCENE / POLICE VEHICLE PASSING BY POLICE PICK UP TRUCKS AT SCENE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABDUL HADI MUTLAQ, MEMBER OF NEIGHBOURHOOD PATROL, SAYING: "We have just changed shifts when the blast took place. I came back to check on my colleagues and
  • Embargoed: 29th September 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAB6IR1RJRR4KSQ50SI23DUC09W
  • Story Text: A roadside bomb at a checkpoint in Baghdad's Karrada district killed four security personnel, three of them policemen and one U.S.-backed neighbourhood guard, on Saturday (September 13), police said.
    The bomb was hidden in kiosk near the checkpoint manned jointly by police commandos and U.S.-backed neighbourhood guard, police said. Nine people, including three policemen and two members of the neighbourhood guard were also wounded in the blast.
    The attack in Baghdad came a day after a suicide car bomb killed 30 people and wounded 47 others outside a police station in a predominantly Shi'ite town north of Baghdad on Friday (September 12).
    The attack in Dujail, Salahuddin province, was one of the deadliest in Iraq in months and shows militants are still capable of carrying out large-scale bombings despite major security gains across the country.
    Major Ahmed Subhi, head of an anti-terrorism unit in the province, told Reuters that 30 people were killed and 47 wounded.
    Police said the bombing occurred just before dusk, when many people were on the streets before the breaking of the fast during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
    They said casualties were a mix of civilians shopping at a nearby market as well as police. A large number of the wounded were taken to Balad hospital nearby for treatment.

    "A car came and parked in the area and we called on the police to tow it away, but they did not come, half an hour later it blew up. People were fasting and every one of them lost two or three relatives," said a wounded man in Balad hospital.
    Dujail lies 50 km (30 miles) north of Baghdad.
    The attack bore the hallmarks of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda.
    A series of military offensives by U.S. and Iraqi forces has significantly weakened the militant group and forced its fighters into northern provinces such as Salahuddin.
    Violence overall in Iraq has fallen to levels not seen since early 2004. Those security gains have allowed U.S. forces to begin withdrawing from Iraq.
    Dujail was the site of an assassination attempt on former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in 1982.
    Saddam, toppled in the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, was hanged in December 2006 after being found guilty in the killing of scores of Shi'ite men in Dujail after the attempt on his life.
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