- Title: IRAQ: REBEL ATTACKS ACROSS FIVE CITIES KILL AT LEAST SEVENTY-FIVE PEOPLE.
- Date: 24th June 2004
- Summary: (W3) MOSUL, IRAQ (JUNE 24, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. GV: EXTERIOR DAMAGED POLICE STATION (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. GV: DAMAGED CARS (3 SHOTS) 0.28 (U3) MOSUL, IRAQ (JUNE 24, 2004) (REUTERS) 3. GV: EMERGENCY VEHICLES AT SITE OF BOMB 0.35 4. GV: CRATERS AND DAMAGE CAUSED AT POLICE STATION FROM SUICIDE BOMBING (4 SHOTS) 1.02 (W4) B
- Embargoed: 9th July 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MOSUL, BAGHDAD, BAQUBA, RAMADI, FALLUJA, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVAA31XCKR3VU27UBNPU1TM168XL
- Story Text: About 75 die in rebel attacks in five Iraq cities.
Insurgents killed 75 people on Thursday (June 24) in
a wave of attacks across Iraq aimed at sabotaging the
handover to Iraqi rule in six days' time.
Guerrillas struck in Baquba, Falluja, Ramadi, Mosul and
Baghdad, wounding more than 250 people in an
intensification of a bloody campaign by Iraqi rebels and
foreign militants. Three U.S. soldiers were killed.
In Mosul, 390km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, multiple
car bombings on police buildings rocked the city, killing
at least 44 people and wounding 216, the Health Ministry
said.
Fighting in Anbar province, which includes Falluja and
Ramadi in the Sunni Muslim heartlands of central Iraq,
killed at least nine people and wounded 27, the ministry
said.
At least seven large explosions shook Mosul and local
television ordered residents to stay at home. Police
blocked all major roads and announced a dusk-to-dawn
curfew. Gunfire rattled across Mosul as insurgents fought
running battles with U.S. troops and Iraqi police.
Apart from the Iraqi casualties, the U.S. military said
an American soldier had been killed and three wounded in
the blasts. It said a security guard was also killed.
Four Iraqi national guardsmen were killed and two
civilians wounded by a car bomb blast in southern Baghdad,
an officer in the force said. Hospital staff put the death
toll at five.
Scores of black-clad gunmen, some claiming loyalty to
Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, attacked a police
station and other government buildings in Baquba, 60 km (40
miles) northwest of Baghdad, in a dawn assault.
It appeared to be the first time members of Zarqawi's
underground network had surfaced in street combat.
The U.S. Army said two soldiers had been killed and
seven wounded in an ambush in Baquba that involved roadside
bombs as well as small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade
fire.
The Health Ministry said 13 people had been killed and
15 wounded in the mixed Sunni-Shi'ite town.
Many of the fighters wore yellow headbands bearing the
name of a Muslim militant group "Saraya al-Tawhid and
Jihad" (Battalions of Unification and Holy War). They
handed out leaflets warning Iraqis not to "collaborate"
with Americans.
Zarqawi's Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad group has claimed
responsibility for many attacks in Iraq, including this
week's beheading of a South Korean hostage.
Witnesses said an Iraqi hospital director and his
driver were killed on a road near Baquba. A police car
burned nearby.
In Ramadi, insurgents fired mortars at two police
stations and the house of a security official in Ramadi,
110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad. They also clashed with
U.S. troops.
The U.S. military said seven Iraqi police and 12
insurgents had been killed in the fighting.
Fierce clashes raged for two hours in Falluja where
U.S. Marines called in air strikes by planes and
helicopters on guerrilla targets in the rebellious town
west of Baghdad.
A U.S. Cobra helicopter was shot down during the
Falluja fighting but the crew walked away unhurt, Marines
said.
Iraq's fledgling security forces, the main target of
the violence, are crucial to the interim government's
prospects for imposing order after the June 30 handover.
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