IRAQ: Central Baghdad blasts kill at least 25 in unrelenting sectarian violence

Record ID: 357054

  • Title: IRAQ: Central Baghdad blasts kill at least 25 in unrelenting sectarian violence
  • Date: 28th July 2006
  • Summary: (BN06) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JULY 27, 2006)(REUTERS) CAR BOMB BLAST SITE AND SMOKE COMING UP FROM CAR CAR BOMB ON FIRE AND SMOKE RISING FROM IT CAR ON FIRE / PEOPLE AND SECURITY STANDING NEARBY MEMBER OF IRAQI ARMY WALKING NEAR BLAST SITE CAR BOMB ON FIRE
  • Embargoed: 12th August 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAEVNS5WTK56GUL0WMWBMDCZDIU
  • Story Text: A car bomb and several mortars ripped through central Baghdad on Thursday (July 27), killing at least 25 people and wounding 45 others, police sources said.
    The car bomb, in the shopping district of Karrada, heavily damaged a building, raising fears the death toll could rise, said Ministry of Interior sources. The mortars landed nearby.
    Although there have been bombings in Karrada before, the mostly Shi'ite area is one of the few relatively stable districts of the capital, with busy shopping areas.
    Police said that a car bomb parked on the side of the road exploded in the busy shopping street and a few minutes later three mortars smashed into a nearby apartment building, reducing it almost to rubble and trapping people inside.
    Residents of the area rushed to the blast site, evacuating wounded people and pulling out people trapped under the rubble of damaged building.
    U.S. and Iraqi forces have been focusing their efforts on stabilising Baghdad but the violence is unrelenting. The U.S. military may boost its force in Iraq by delaying the scheduled departure of some troops involved in routine rotations, officials said in Washington on Wednesday.
    As has been done periodically during the three-year-old war, the military would temporarily increase the size of the force by extending the overlap between arriving units and those leaving.
    One defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the idea would be to create "a momentary overlap of at least a brigade" -- meaning roughly 3,500 troops.
    Another official said the increase might be "from the low 3,000s to the high 4,000s."
    Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki depicted Iraq as central to the war on terrorism when he addressed the U.S. congress on Wednesday.
    But the Shi'ite Islamist did not address Iraq's growing sectarian violence that has raised fears of all-out civil war. An average of 100 people a day have died in attacks between factions in the past few weeks.
    Tough-talking Maliki vowed to crush the Sunni Arab insurgency and tackle sectarian violence when he was sworn in two months ago.
    But like his predecessors, he has failed to ease bloodshed, with militias tied to political parties, including some in his ruling Shi'ite Alliance, acting with impunity and drawing accusations from Sunnis they run death squads. jrc/
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