IRAQ: Immediate aftermath of two suicide bombings in Hilla that killed at least forty five

Record ID: 356368

  • Title: IRAQ: Immediate aftermath of two suicide bombings in Hilla that killed at least forty five
  • Date: 11th May 2010
  • Summary: POLICEMAN SHOUTING/ CALLING FOR FOR PEOPLE TO OPEN ROAD TO AMBULANCE / BODY OF VICTIM ON TRUCK
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA6RF2V9ZC5XHM2DTY61WCXUV8W
  • Story Text: Suicide bombers, car bombs and gunmen using silencers killed at least 100 people in Iraq on Monday (May 10) after insurgents carried out a wave of assaults against markets, a factory car park and police and army checkpoints.
    The attacks in different parts of Baghdad and in towns to the south, north and west of the capital appeared aimed at showing Iraqis that al Qaeda in Iraq was still a potent force despite suffering battlefield defeats in recent weeks.
    They also occurred as Iraq remained gripped by political uncertainty two months after an inconclusive election that pitted a cross-sectarian bloc backed by minority Sunnis against the main Shi'ite-led political coalitions.
    In the bloodiest incident on Monday, two suicide car bombers drove into the entrance of a textile factory as workers were ending a shift in the town of Hilla, south of Baghdad, a regional office of the national media centre said.
    A third bomb exploded as police and medics rushed to the scene, causing additional casualties. At least 45 people died and 190 were wounded, a hospital source said.
    Relatives of the victims, many consumed with grief and rage, stormed a local hospital to carry away the dead and wounded, a health worker said.
    The southern oil city of Basra was struck by three car bombs killing 21 people and wounding more than 70 others, security and medical sources said. The first was in a central market and the other two exploded in northern Basra near a petrol station and in a residential area.
    Oil production, the bulk of which comes from fields outside the city, was not affected.
    Earlier, a suicide bomber wearing a vest laden with explosives and another driving a car killed at least 13 people and wounded 40 in a marketplace in al-Suwayra, 50 km (30 miles) southeast of Baghdad, said Majid Askar, an official with the Wasit provincial council.
    Meanwhile at dawn in Baghdad, gunmen equipped with silencers killed at least seven Iraqi soldiers and policemen when they attacked six checkpoints, while bombs planted at three others wounded several more, an Interior Ministry source said.
    The checkpoints were all attacked around the same time, the source said, asking not to be identified. Other checkpoints came under sporadic fire later in the day from gunmen in cars.
    A series of other attacks in the western province of Anbar, the volatile northern city of Mosul, the northern outskirts of Baghdad and elsewhere took the death toll from the day of bloodshed to at least 66, with more than 200 wounded.
    The attacks were a show of strength from a weakened yet still dangerous Sunni Islamist insurgency after government forces dealt a series of blows to al Qaeda's network in recent weeks. Suicide attacks are a hallmark of al Qaeda, and Monday's attacks happened in areas where the group had once been strong.
    Overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the height of sectarian warfare in 2006/07, but the March 7 election that produced no clear winner has fuelled tensions.
    bag/jrc
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