IRAQ: Two attacks in Baghdad leave several dead or wounded

Record ID: 357989

  • Title: IRAQ: Two attacks in Baghdad leave several dead or wounded
  • Date: 11th October 2005
  • Summary: (BN10) AMIRIYA, BAGHDAD (OCTOBER 11, 2005) (REUTERS) WIDE SHOT BURNT OUT CARS ON SIDE OF ROAD / U.S. MILITARY VEHICLES DRIVING BY ; BURNT OUT CARS; FIRE ENGINE AT SITE WITH BURNT OUT CAR IN THE MIDDLE OF STREET WIDE SHOT U.S. SOLDIERS AT SITE ; WIDE SHOT BURNT OUT CARS ; WIDE SHOT U.S. SOLDIERS EXAMINING WRECKAGE OF CAR
  • Embargoed: 26th October 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA3W17WVQJQD148R49A9215J8UQ
  • Story Text: Two people were killed and 14 others, including four children, were wounded on Tuesday (October 11, 2005) when a mortar shell exploded by an electrical generator which had been placed in a crowded marketplace in western Baghdad's neighbourhood of Al-Amil, a police source said.
    "We were working in the shop when suddenly something exploded and fire erupted," said a man who suffered severe burns in the attack.
    A suicide car bomber hit Iraqi soldiers in a part of Baghdad where Sunni Arab insurgents have been active and killed five, including two civilians on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.
    The attack took place in Amiriya neighbourhood in western Baghdad.
    Initial police reports indicated at least 25 people were killed, though emergency teams were prevented from reaching all the casualties because of the threat from rebels.
    The assault came only four days before a referendum on a constitution that has divided the nation along sectarian lines.
    In Baghdad, U.S. officials met for a third consecutive day with Shi'ite, Kurdish and Sunni leaders in a last-ditch effort to win Sunni support before the constitutional vote on Oct. 15.
    Some Sunni Muslim Arab leaders say the constitution will seal their political doom and hand control of the country to the Shi'ite Muslim majority and its Kurdish allies.
    Fears among the Sunnis, who make up just 20 percent of Iraq's population but who dominated the country under Saddam Hussein, lie at the heart of an increasingly bloody insurgency that has killed hundreds of civilians in recent months.
    The constitution was meant to unite postwar Iraq, but the referendum could bring outright civil war closer if Sunni Arabs are left feeling alienated and disenfranchised.
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