IRAQ: Insurgents continue their campaign of violence across Iraq

Record ID: 355816

  • Title: IRAQ: Insurgents continue their campaign of violence across Iraq
  • Date: 10th May 2006
  • Summary: (BN08) BAQUBA, IRAQ (MAY 10, 2006)(REUTERS): IRAQI ARMY MEMBERS AT THE SITE OF ATTACK, DEBRIS ON STREET CAR WRECKAGE ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD IRAQI SECURITY FORCES EXAMINING WRECKAGE OF CAR/ U.S. FORCES ARRIVE AT SITE PIECES OF CAR SCATTERED ALL OVER SIDE OF THE ROAD IRAQI ARMY MEMBER CHECKING AREA NEAR BLAST SITE
  • Embargoed: 25th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVADORLV717LLV08A4RSUPT24PWR
  • Story Text: Gunmen attacked a minibus near the Iraqi city of Baquba on Wednesday, killing 11 civilians in the volatile area northeast of Baghdad, police said.
    The 11 dead were among a group of people travelling to work at an electrical equipment factory on the outskirts of Baquba, Lieutenant Colonel Salman al-Dahlagi said.
    He said the gunmen had stopped the minibus, forced the passengers to get out and then shot the men among them.
    Television footage showed the mangled remains of the vehicle by the side of the road. An Iraqi military officer at the scene said the gunmen had blown up the minibus after the attack.
    Police corrected an earlier account of the incident in which they quoted a witness saying people were killed when a booby- trapped car blew up.
    Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, 65 km (40 miles) from Baghdad, has seen considerable violence on the part of Sunni Arab guerrillas in the past year. The city's population is mixed with large populations of Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds.
    Also in Baquba on Wednesday, gunmen killed a detective lieutenant-colonel and his two bodyguards, police said. Kanan Hasan, a deputy of the head of criminal intelligence in the city, and his bodyguards were shot dead on his way to work.
    The U.S. military said its forces and Iraqi troops seized weapons and detained 24 suspected insurgents in co-ordinated raids near Baquba on Tuesday (May 9).
    The confiscated material included surface-to-air rockets, ammunition and $4,000 in U.S. cash, a U.S. statement said.
    To the west of Baghdad, gunmen shot dead four policemen who were driving in the city of Ramadi on Tuesday police said.
    The western city of Ramadi is a stronghold of Sunni insurgents waging a campaign of bombings and shootings aimed at toppling the Shi'ite-led government and driving out U.S. forces.
    In the capital Baghdad, a minibus was hit by a bomb blast in central Baghdad on Wednesday, police and witnesses said.
    The blast, which took place in the busy street of Al-Kefah also damaged a passing bus.
    There have been no reports so far on the number of casualties.
    In the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar the death toll from Tuesday's (May 9) suicide bombing has risen to 24 from 17, police said on Wednesday.
    The bomber detonated his car in a market in the city, which U.S. President George W. Bush earlier this year held up as an example of progress being made in Iraq, three years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.
    Police earlier said the attack targeted police and army headquarters in the city, located near the Syrian border. But a police spokesman on Wednesday said the vehicle targeted civilians only:
    "A car rigged with explosives, driven by a criminal suicide bomber, targeted a civilian neighbourhood, where no policemen or military vehicles were present," the spokesman said.
    An Iraqi police official said 35 people were also wounded in the blast. A hospital source said the casualties included civilians as well as Iraqi police and troops.
    U.S. military earlier said the bombing killed at least 16 civilians and wounded 134 others, adding that U.S. troops treated more than 60 of the victims with 24 of them in a critical condition.
    In March, Bush called Tal Afar a "a free city that gives reason for hope for a free Iraq" after U.S.-led forces freed it from al Qaeda militants in a 2005 offensive.
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