IRAQ: Another wave of bomb blasts has hit Baghdad a day after the blast which left 69 dead

Record ID: 354125

  • Title: IRAQ: Another wave of bomb blasts has hit Baghdad a day after the blast which left 69 dead
  • Date: 2nd July 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) MOHAMMED ABDEL RAZZAQ, SAYING: "A group of men stepped out of the car and said they would have breakfast. They parked their car here and minutes later the car exploded."
  • Embargoed: 17th July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVACDVH0JYSBG61L49U2EAELGJ1N
  • Story Text: A blast in front of a restaurant in central Baghdad on Sunday (July 2), wounding at least 10 civilians, police sources said.
    The blast was caused by a parked car near Kubat al-Baghdadi Restaurant in Baghdad's central district of Karrada.
    "A group of men stepped out of the car and said they would have breakfast. They parked their car here and minutes later the car exploded," said Mohammed Abdel Razzaq, who was close to blast site.
    The blast damaged at least five cars and inflicted heavy damage to the restaurant buildings and a number of nearby shops, scattering pieces of cars all over the site.
    In a separate attack the same day a car bomb exploded close to convoy of chief of traffic police who was among three officers wounded. One civilian was killed, police said.
    A secular Shi'ite lawmaker survived an assassination attempt in Baghdad on Sunday, a day after the kidnapping of a female member of parliament and seven of her bodyguards, police and colleagues said.
    Iyad Jamalideen, who was travelling in an armoured vehicle, was unhurt but two of his guards and four civilians were wounded from the blast in southern Baghdad's relatively upscale Jadiriya district.
    Jamalideen is a liberal Shi'ite cleric who advocates secularism and is a member of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's secular bloc in Iraq's parliament.
    In al-Hurriya district of western Baghdad, car bomb exploded near civilians, wounding 19, police said.
    "Yesterday, a vehicle was in the area. We told people about it but they did not care. The insurgents exploded it today. Mailiki should find a solution to this," said Ayman Habib, an eye witness.
    Insurgents fighting to topple Iraq's Shi'ite Islamist-led government often target restaurants in Baghdad, frequently those popular with policemen or soldiers.
    The latest explosions followed a bloody day in Baghdad on Saturday (July 01) where 62 civilians were killed and 114 others wounded in a blast in the Shi'ite militia stronghold of Sadr City.
    It was the bloodiest attack in Iraq in three months and by far the deadliest since Osama bin Laden's lieutenant in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a U.S. air strike on June 7.
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