IRAQ: Car bombs kill 23 in Iraq

Record ID: 356666

  • Title: IRAQ: Car bombs kill 23 in Iraq
  • Date: 6th December 2007
  • Summary: (BN13) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (DECEMBER 5, 2007) (AGENCY POOL) U.S. DEFENCE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES AND IRAQI DEFENCE MINISTER ABR AL QADR ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. DEFENCE SECRETARY, ROBERT GATES SAYING: "As you know there has been, in recent months, a dramatic change in the security situation across the nation. A decline
  • Embargoed: 21st December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAE9L6KNZPK2YKVCGS0IQF5BYLZ
  • Story Text: Twenty-three dead in car bombs but U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates, on a surprise visit to Iraq, says violence has declined.
    Car bombs killed 23 people in Baghdad and three other Iraqi cities on Wednesday (December 5) but U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that a secure, stable country was within reach.
    A car bomb near a Shi'ite mosque in central Baghdad killed 15 people and wounded 33 as they gathered for evening prayers, making it the city's deadliest bombing since September.
    Gunfire could be heard and black smoke rose over the area after the blast in the mainly Shi'ite Karrada district, just across the Tigris River from where Gates met Iraqi officials in the heavily fortified "Green Zone" compound.
    An al Qaeda affiliated group warned this week of a renewed campaign of car bomb attacks.
    Despite the day's bloodshed, overall attacks across Iraq have fallen to their lowest level in nearly two years.

    "As you know there has been, in recent months, a dramatic change in the security situation across the nation. A decline in violence to levels not seen since the Samara Mosque bombing nearly two years ago," Gates told a news conference less than an hour after the blast.
    On an unannounced visit, Gates touched down first in Mosul, north of Baghdad, in a region U.S. commanders now consider one of the most violent parts of Iraq after al Qaeda militants relocated to the north and northeast following crackdowns in the capital and the west.
    Hours before Gates arrived a car bomb near a police station killed a civilian in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city. Car bombs in Baquba and Kirkuk, two other cities north of Baghdad, killed at least seven people.
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