IRAQ: Car bomb kills 13 at Baghdad market while relatives of Friday's twin mosque blasts bury their dead

Record ID: 358166

  • Title: IRAQ: Car bomb kills 13 at Baghdad market while relatives of Friday's twin mosque blasts bury their dead
  • Date: 19th November 2005
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) HAIDER, A RELATIVE OF THE TWO DEAD MEN, SAYING: "We are a family from Khanaqin we lost two men, the father and the son. What is their guilt to be killed in this way? They went to pray. Their only guilt is that they went to pray at the Hussayniya (Shi'ite mosque) and they blew then up .You could not imagine what they looked like when we pulled them out (
  • Embargoed: 4th December 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA8L4PIPL0LQ3NYTJH73F18HVK6
  • Story Text: A car bomb killed 13 people in Baghdad on Saturday (November 13), a day after more than 80 were killed in suicide blasts across the country.
    The car bomb detonated in a crowded market in the Diyala Bridge area in the south of the Iraqi capital. As well as the dead, around 20 people were wounded, the Interior Ministry said.
    The bombing came as several dozen leaders from across Iraq's political and sectarian spectrum met in Cairo to discuss the country's relentless insurgency and a way forward in talks sponsored by the Arab League. It was the highest level gathering so far organised between Iraqi government leaders and opposition figures.
    Two suicide bombers strapped with explosives killed 77 people and wounded 80 while reducing two crowded Shi'ite mosques to rubble during Friday prayers (November 18) in the mixed Shi'ite and Kurdish town of Khanaqin, near the border with Iran in northeastern Iraq.
    The attacks seemed certain to fuel sectarian tensions ahead of a December 15 election that Washington hopes will pave the way for peace and democracy 2-1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion.
    The Shi'ite and Kurdish-led government and its U.S. backers are fighting a mainly Sunni Arab insurgency that has frequently blown up civilians in crowded places like mosques and markets.
    Police said the bombers entered the small Sheikh Murad and Khanaqin Grand mosques with explosive belts strapped to their waists and detonated themselves when the buildings were at their busiest -- during prayers on the Muslim holy day.
    On Saturday (November 19), families from Khanaqin the buried their dead. A crowd of wailing women and weeping men mourned their loved ones as they carried simple wooden coffins to be buried.
    "We are a family from Khanaqin we lost two men, the father and the son. What is their guilt to be killed in this way? They went to pray. Their only guilt is that they went to pray at the Hussayniya (Shi'ite mosque) and they blew then up. You could not imagine what they looked like when we pulled them out (from the rubble)," said Haider, a relative of two the blast victims.
    The twin mosque blasts followed two suicide car-bomb attacks on a Baghdad hotel popular with journalists and contractors. All told, Friday's violence left 83 people dead and more than 100 wounded, one of the bloodiest days for Iraq in recent months.
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