IRAQ: Car bomb wounds 10 in northern Iraq as demonstrators protest against security barrier in Baghdad

Record ID: 357220

  • Title: IRAQ: Car bomb wounds 10 in northern Iraq as demonstrators protest against security barrier in Baghdad
  • Date: 6th October 2007
  • Summary: (BN09) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (OCTOBER 6, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS WALKING IN STREET IN BAGHDAD/ CHANTING "NO! NO! AMERICA DEMONSTRATORS CHANTING "NO! NO! TO THE WALL" BANNER READING "RESIDENTS OF WASHASH DEMAND THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT TO LIFT THE WALL AND RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED ON THE CITY" VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING GIANT IRAQI FLAG AND BANNERS (SOUNDBITE) (Arab
  • Embargoed: 21st October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVAA5KR4GX70YAW1RVMMGDSA10JN
  • Story Text: A car bomb exploded next to an Iraqi police patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Saturday (October 6), wounding ten people, police said.
    They said that the attack took place in Jisr al-Talith area of eastern oil rich city of Kirkuk.
    Kirkuk has been the flashpoint for growing political and ethnic tensions. The city sits adjacent to one of the world's largest oilfields, which Kurdish leaders hope will provide the resource base for a future independent Kurdish state. Kurds, however, make up only a plurality of the population of the province, being slightly outnumbered by Arabs and Turkmen.
    Meanwhile, nearly two thousands demonstrators from a neighbourhood in western Baghdad took to the streets, protesting the U.S. forces decision to set up concrete barrier walls and separate their area from nearby areas of western Baghdad.
    Residents of al-Washash neighbourhood of western Baghdad carried banners while chanted anti U.S. slogans, saying that the U.S. forces can not separate Sunnis and Shi'ites as they are brothers who live peacefully in the area.
    "In the name of these angry masses, we condemn this wall... We are a peaceful area, there are no terrorists and no trouble," said Abdul Amir Jaajaa, a demonstrator.
    Baghdad is already largely divided along sectarian lines after the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006 sparked a wave of violence that reshaped the city's fabric.
    Temporary concrete barrier walls will outline selected neighbourhoods around Baghdad in an attempt to help protect the Iraqi population from terrorists Sunnis now mainly live on the west side of the Tigris River and Shi'ites on the east, although there are still some mixed areas. Baghdad was founded as a walled city in the 8th century to protect it from foreign invaders.
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