IRAQ: Distraught relatives receive bodies of Baghdad attack victims

Record ID: 352304

  • Title: IRAQ: Distraught relatives receive bodies of Baghdad attack victims
  • Date: 18th August 2010
  • Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (AUGUST 17, 2010) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) MEN CARRYING COFFIN OUT OF HOSPITAL, SHOUTING IN ARABIC "THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH" MORE OF MEN CARRYING COFFIN, PLACING IT ON ROOF OF VEHICLE WOMAN WAILING, MAN WALKING BESIDE HER PULLING HEADSCARF OVER HER FACE MORE OF PEOPLE WAILING MEN CARRYING ANOTHER COFFIN FROM THE HOSPITAL GROUNDS PEOPLE GATHERED OUT
  • Embargoed: 2nd September 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAC8S3IL257C9D29OORW1TV8K1R
  • Story Text: Distraught relatives gathered at a Baghdad hospital on Tuesday (August 17) to receive the bodies of victims killed in a suicide attack earlier in the day.
    At least 57 recruits and soldiers were killed and 123 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at an army recruitment centre near Baghdad's central Maidan square, the media office of the Health Ministry said.
    The blast, which tore through a line of recruits, was one of the bloodiest this year.
    The bloodshed added to tensions that have simmered following an inconclusive election more than five months ago that has yet to produce a new government.
    A man outside the hospital blamed the political stalemate for Tuesday's deaths.
    "What did those young men do to be targeted by suicide vests, tell me what did they do? Why do you stick to the chair? Leave it," he said, referring to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
    Insurgents have been targeting Iraqi police and soldiers as they prepare to take full responsibility for security on Sept. 1, when the United Statesa 7-1/2 year combat mission.
    U.S. troop numbers will be reduced to 50,000 for a training mission before a full withdrawal planned for next year.
    The site of the attack used to be the Defence Ministry under Saddam Hussein, turned into an army recruitment centre and military base after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
    In Baghdad and Diyala province, meanwhile, insurgents attacked eight judges with bombs and silenced weapons, killing two of them, a source in the Justice Ministry said.
    The bloodshed was the latest attack since the March 7 election produced no outright winner and pitted a Sunni-backed, cross-sectarian alliance against the country's major Shi'ite-led factions.
    While overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the height in 2006-07 of the sectarian slaughter between majority Shi'ites and once dominant Sunnis, a stubborn insurgency remains capable of carrying out large scale attacks.
    Officials say the insurgents are now trying to exploit political tension stirred up by unsuccessful coalition talks between Shi'ite political factions and the Sunni-backed Iraqiya alliance, which won a narrow victory in March.
    Hopes of a possible solution to the stalemate were dashed on Monday when Iraqiya, headed by former premier Iyad Allawi, broke off talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register