IRAQ: 19 people killed in shooting and bombing attack at a bus garage in eastern Baghdad/ Heavy fighting erupts between insurgents and U.S. forces in Ramadi /Sunnis accuse US of "atrocity" over raids

Record ID: 354488

  • Title: IRAQ: 19 people killed in shooting and bombing attack at a bus garage in eastern Baghdad/ Heavy fighting erupts between insurgents and U.S. forces in Ramadi /Sunnis accuse US of "atrocity" over raids
  • Date: 17th May 2006
  • Summary: MEN PUTTING OUT FIRE IN STALL
  • Embargoed: 1st June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAEVODGER4GJ5QFO9K5CUQVL82Q
  • Story Text: Nineteen people were killed in a shooting and bombing attack at a bus garage in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday (May 16), police said. Gunmen shot five Shi'ite militiamen.
    When a crowd gathered at the scene a car bomb detonated, killing 14 people and wounding 33.
    "There were gunmen here who shot five people. We arrived at the site and we found six bodies. People gathered at the site , we were advising people to move from the area, I went to get an ambulance and when I arrived at the market close to here, the car exploded ," said Ali Ahmed, a policeman at the site.
    On Sunday (May 14), a series of car and suicide bombs across the capital killed more than 30 people.
    Militants from the Sunni Arab minority are waging an insurgency against the Shi'ite-led government and its U.S. backers.
    In the restive city of Ramadi, heavy fighting erupted between insurgents and U.S. forces on Monday (May 15) A doctor at the city's main hospital said eight bodies and nine wounded people had been received.
    Ramadi, the capital of semi-lawless Anbar province, is a base of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency. U.S. and Iraqi troops have launched a series of offensives in Anbar over the past few months aimed at securing western Iraq against the insurgents.
    Also on Tuesday, Iraq's main Sunni religious grouping accused U.S. forces on Tuesday (May 16) of killing 25 civilians in raids near Baghdad in the past two days, rejecting the U.S. account that only suspected insurgents had died.
    "The US forces accompanied by the government army have launched brutal operations and intentionally killing innocent civilians, especially the bombing of Latifiya in the Shakha Wahid area. Families ran away from their houses and used farms and orchards as a shelter but the US helicopter followed those people and killed the men, women and children," Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, a top Sunni figure told news conference.
    The U.S. military earlier on Monday (May 15) said its forces had killed more than 41 insurgents in and around the villages of Latifiya and Yusifiya, south of the capital, on Saturday and Sunday. It also said a U.S. helicopter was shot down, killing two soldiers.
    Two separate U.S. statements on the air and ground raids did not mention any civilian deaths, but said several women and children were wounded.
    The U.S. military says al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, uses the area as a staging ground for suicide attacks in Baghdad. It says he aims to incite a sectarian civil war between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis.
    The Sunni association accused U.S. forces of attacking civilian houses and killing people as they tried to flee.
    It said 25 people were killed in Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, on Saturday and Sunday. The U.S. military had said 15 "suspected terrorists" were killed in Latifiya and more than 25 in raids on Sunday in nearby Yusifiya.
    "American and Iraqi forces on Saturday evening carried out a severe air strike in the area of Latifiya against houses with civilians," the statement said.
    It said people ran away from their houses to seek protection but that U.S. forces followed them and killed them.
    U.S. troops detained six people, including two women and a child, and returned on Monday and seized more people, it said. The military said it had detained eight suspects in Latifiya.
    The area south of the capital, sometimes popularly called the "triangle of death", has been a stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgency raging against U.S. and Iraqi forces. Iraq's minority Sunnis dominated the country under Saddam Hussein but have seen their influence wane since he was overthrown by U.S. forces in 2003.
    Early on Tuesday (May 16), bombs damaged three shops known for selling alcohol in a commercial district of downtown Baghdad in what may have been the latest attack by militants seeking to impose Islamic customs in Iraq.
    The sequence of explosions at dawn in the Karrada shopping district wrecked the stores' frontages and, in one case, an advertising display for beer.
    Police said no one was hurt as the streets were largely deserted at that hour, just before 6 a.m. (0200 GMT).
    They had no immediate comment on the motive. Violence driven by business rivalry is also not unknown in Baghdad.
    But alcohol sellers, many from Iraq's Christian minority, have been intimidated by Islamist militants on both sides of the Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian divide, driving many out of business or pushing the trade underground in a city once noted, under the secular rule of Saddam Hussein, for its nightlife and liberal social culture.
    Among other aspects of a new emphasis on Muslim traditions are the increased wearing of veils and headscarves by women in public -- a cause of complaint among some women's rights groups -- and proclamations by militants threatening those who do not observe conservative dress and moral codes.
    Though a new, U.S.-sponsored constitution introduced last year makes Islamic law a main reference for legislation, no new restrictions have been imposed on the sale of alcohol, as is common in other Muslim countries, or on other social customs.
    Islamist parties dominate the national unity government that is in the process of formation this week, but it is unclear whether the new ministers will seek to change that.
    Also on Tuesday, gunmen opened fire on civilians near a bus station in southern Baghdad, killing six civilians and wounding five others, police said.
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