IRAQ: Two suicide car bombs kill 20 near Iraq's Ramad

Record ID: 356743

  • Title: IRAQ: Two suicide car bombs kill 20 near Iraq's Ramad
  • Date: 8th May 2007
  • Summary: (EU) RAMADI, IRAQ (MAY 7, 2007)(REUTERS) BLAST SCNE WITH DAMAGED BUILDING AND WRECKAGE OF CAR BOMB GROUP OF U.S. TROOPS AND IRAQIS STANDING NEAR REMAINS OF SUICIDE BOMBER WRECKAGE OF CAR BOMB IRAQI SOLDIERS NEAR DAMAGED CAR WRECKAGE OF CAR BOMB DAMAGED BUILDING AND PEOPLE AND POLICEMEN NEARBY DAMAGED SHOPS (SOUNDBITE)(ARABIC) MAN WEARING ROBE SPLATTERED WITH BLOOD, SAYING:
  • Embargoed: 23rd May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVABW4HE22SUZTRW8WE702YUUZOM
  • Story Text: Sunni Islamist al Qaeda is engaged in a fierce power struggle with traditionally minded Sunni Arab tribesmen in western Anbar province and its provincial capital Ramadi on Monday (May 7).
    The first car bomb went off in a packed market in the town of Albu-Thiyab, east of Ramadi, said Tareq al-Thiyabi, a police colonel who is a government security adviser in Anbar province.
    He said 12 people were killed at the market, including women and children. More than 25 people were wounded.
    The second car bomb exploded soon after at a police checkpoint in a town called al-Jazeera, where eight people including two policemen were killed, he added.
    The town is home to many of the Sunni Arab tribal leaders who formed an alliance against al Qaeda last year.
    "They are terrorists. They are from al Qaeda," Thiyabi said, when asked who he thought was behind the twin blasts.
    A Sunni Arab tribal leader in the area confirmed there had been two suicide blasts but he had no information on casualties.
    The tribal chiefs oppose al Qaeda's campaign of indiscriminate attacks on civilians and the imposition of an austere form of Islam in the areas where the group holds sway.
    Recent big suicide attacks in Anbar, an overwhelmingly Sunni province west of Baghdad, have been blamed on al Qaeda.
    Tribal leaders have sought to expel al Qaeda from Anbar, and have had some success, pushing some of the al Qaeda militants out, U.S. military officials have said.
    While car bombings still plague Anbar, and especially Ramadi, violence has fallen across the province, they say.
    At a news conference in Washington last month, the U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, hailed the tribal leaders, saying they were "helping transform Anbar province and other areas from being assessed as lost as little as six months ago to being relatively heartening".
    Ramadi lies 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad.
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