IRAQ: Policeman is killed in Najaf, police convoy targeted in Baghdad and Basra police chief survives assassination attempt

Record ID: 354451

  • Title: IRAQ: Policeman is killed in Najaf, police convoy targeted in Baghdad and Basra police chief survives assassination attempt
  • Date: 19th May 2006
  • Summary: (BN11) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (MAY 18, 2006) (REUTERS- ACCESS ALL) SCENE WHERE THE ROADSIDE BOMB EXPLODED SITE OF BLAST DAMAGED TRASH CONTAINED AT SITE OF BLAST POLICE VEHICLES SEALING OFF AREA OF BLAST DAMAGED SHOPS NEAR SITE OF BLAST PEOPLE CLEARING UP GLASS
  • Embargoed: 3rd June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAD782K452EWIRGW243SU50TC4B
  • Story Text: One policeman was killed and several others targeted, among them Basra's police chief, in a number of separate attacks in Iraq on Thursday (May 18).
    In the holy city of Najaf, a roadside bomb killed one policeman and injured three others when it went off near a U.S. military and Iraqi police convoy, according to police.
    "The blast took place in the al-Mnathera area on the main road. Two roadside bombs exploded close to US sports utility vehicles, killing a policeman who was near the site of the attack," said Captain Hadi Abid.
    There was no immediate response from U.S. forces.
    In the capital Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded next to an Iraqi police patrol in western Baghdad causing damage to nearby shops but leaving no casualties.
    The attack took place in al-Mansour neighbourhood of the capital.
    "We were inside our shops when there was a blast inside the trash container. Can you see it? Minutes later a police vehicle was attacked, but nobody was hurt. Police then shot at the trash container but it did not explode. The other blast took place after they left," Makram, an eye witness said.
    Meanwhile, in the south of the country, Basra's police chief escaped an assassination attempt unharmed when a bomb exploded outside his home, police said.
    Security has deteriorated sharply in oil-rich Basra over the past year as rival Shi'ite Muslim groups jockey for power.
    The roadside bomb went off as Major-General Hassan Suwadi, who is locked in a dispute with the governor of Basra province, approached his home in his car.
    Governor Mohammed al-Waeli last Sunday said he suspended Suwadi and asked for the local council to sack him, accusing the police force of failing to take action against violence sweeping Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad.
    While relatively free of the kind of Sunni Islamist bombings of civilian targets seen in U.S.-controlled areas further north, Basra suffers from violence among rival groups from Iraq's Shi'ite majority.
    Waeli is a senior figure of a small but influential member of Iraq's ruling United Alliance, a Shi'ite Islamist bloc. He has also become involved in a public dispute with local aides to Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
    British Defence Secretary Des Browne was in Basra on Thursday to meet British troops in the area, part of a two-day tour of front-line units. Britain has some 8,000 troops in Iraq.
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