- Title: IRAQ: Four killed in gold market attack
- Date: 11th June 2010
- Summary: BASRA, IRAQ (JUNE 10, 2010) (REUTERS) CROWD OF PEOPLE AND CHILDREN AT CLOSED SHOPS IN GOLD MARKET WHERE ATTACK TOOK PLACE CLOSED SHOPS OF GOLDSMITHS KILLED IN WEDNESDAY'S ATTACK CLOSE OF SIGN OF "AL-EMPRESS" JEWELLERY AND GOLD SHOP SHUTTER OF SHOP STAINED BY BLOOD CARDBOARD DRENCHED WITH BLOOD ON GROUND NEAR SHOP CARDBOARD SOAKED WITH BLOOD ON GROUND OF MARKET
- Embargoed: 26th June 2010 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iraq
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
- Reuters ID: LVA6TYD0LKXU5LSJAPAM9CIZ4JKG
- Story Text: Gunmen attacked and robbed a goldsmiths' market in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Wednesday (June 9), killing four people and wounding five others, police said.
About half a dozen gunmen struck the market, located in an older section of the city, around closing time and opened fire before fleeing with gold and jewellery, police said.
"Can any one justify such act? Can God accept this? What country or world can accept that. They were attacked and killed in their shops. Why? They were killed and robbed. May God avenge their death," said Abu Haider, a goldsmith in the market.
It was the second major attack on a gold market in Iraq in 15 days. On May 25, attackers killed 14 people at a market on a busy commercial street in the Bayaa district of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.
At the time, a security official blamed Sunni insurgents linked to al Qaeda and said several police officers from the Bayaa area had been arrested for questioning.
Overall violence has dropped sharply since the worst days of sectarian war in 2006-07, but bombings and shootings are still a regular occurrence, often targeting police, government officials and Sunni ex-insurgents who swapped sides to fight al Qaeda.
Iraq has seen a spike in violence since an inconclusive March 7 parliamentary election, which has yet to yield a government.
Attacks across the country killed nearly a dozen people on Wednesday.
Two civilians died when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed into a U.S. army patrol near the small town of Muqdadiya, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Five people were wounded in the assault.
U.S. forces have pulled out of Iraqi cities and are working to formally end combat operations by Sept. 1, cutting the U.S. military force from just under 90,000 to 50,000.
Near the northern city of Kirkuk, gunmen opened fire at a checkpoint manned by members of the Sahwa government-backed militia, killing one person and wounding two others.
In Abu Ghraib on Baghdad's western outskirts, an armed group killed a policeman and his wife in their home, police said. Their five sons were wounded. The same group seriously wounded another policeman living nearby.
In Baghdad, roadside bombs killed at least two people and wounded seven others. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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