IRAQ: Car bombs rock Baghdad and other cities, while eight bodies are found in north. U.S. air strikes in Ramadi kill two, say local residents

Record ID: 353402

  • Title: IRAQ: Car bombs rock Baghdad and other cities, while eight bodies are found in north. U.S. air strikes in Ramadi kill two, say local residents
  • Date: 1st November 2006
  • Summary: (W3) BAJI, IRAQ (OCTOBER 31, 2006) (REUTERS) TRUCK ON FIRE AND MAN AND TWO CHILDREN STANDING NEAR TRUCK ON FIRE MAN DISPLAYING TATTERED AMERICAN FLAG NEAR BURNING TRUCK CHILDREN NEAR BURNING TRUCK
  • Embargoed: 16th November 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA14XF51C2LY5OXOFEY1YIG8GB9
  • Story Text: U.S. planes bombed a building in the restive city of Ramadi at dawn on Wednesday (November 1, 2006), killing at least two civilians and wounding four others, local residents said.
    They said that planes raided a building belonging to the Water Resources Department in the centre of the city at 0300 (1200 GMT). One of the missiles fired by the planes landed on a nearby house, reducing it to rubble and killing two civilians, among them a child. Another four people, including a mother and three children, were believed trapped under the rubble.
    There was no comment from the U.S. military on the attack.
    Ramadi is one of several Sunni-majority towns along the Euphrates River west of Baghdad that was a stronghold of support for Saddam Hussein. It has been the site of frequent attacks that have killed Americans as well as Iraqis.
    On Tuesday (October 31), a U.S. truck carrying goods for the U.S. military was set ablaze after coming under a bomb attack north of the capital Baghdad.
    The truck was left burning on the side of a road in the oil-refinery city of Baiji as locals gathered near the burning ashes of the truck, brandishing a tattered American flag. There is no information on the fate of the driver of the truck.
    A roadside bomb exploded at a busy intersection in central Baghdad on Wednesday as a convoy of sports utility vehicles often used by foreign security firms drove past, and at least two people were killed and three others wounded, police said.
    The attack took place in al-Jumhuriya street of central Baghdad in which a vehicle was wrecked.
    "The vehicles (SUV) were driving through the road that leads to al-Jumhuriya bridge. A blast took place and when we went to check we found two charred bodies inside the car and the two others, the driver and another person who was sitting beside him were both wounded. We evacuated them to the hospital," said unidentified Iraqi soldier.
    The identity of the dead was unknown and the US forces in Iraq did not give an immediate report on the attack.
    In central Baghdad a car bomb exploded next to an Iraqi police convoy, killing at least five people and wounding seven others, police said. They said that two of the wounded were policemen in the attack in the Oqba bin Nafea district of central Baghdad.
    At least two more people were killed and 10 others wounded when a bomb left inside a car exploded near Baghdad's central market on Wednesday, police said. The blast took place in Baghdad's busy wholesale market of al-Shorja.
    Early in the morning, a blast caused by another bomb left inside a minibus killed three people and wounded seven others, according to police.
    However, witnesses gave a different account of the attack, saying that U.S. forces sprayed the minibus with a hail of bullets after coming under attack by a roadside bomb while driving in Baghdad's western district of Bayaa.
    On Tuesday, police said that the bodies of eight people were found, bound and gagged, in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad. The victims, all shot in the head, were taken to the Diyala health department.
    The dumping of bodies bearing signs of torture and killed execution-style has become a feature of a sectarian "dirty war" being waged among Iraqi armed factions.
    Baquba is in an area with a mixed population of Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs and it has seen relentless sectarian bloodshed in recent months.
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