IRAQ: TWO SUICIDE BOMBERS KILL FIFTY PEOPLE INCLUDING LOCAL OFFICIALS IN IDENTICALLY TIMED ATTACKS ON KURDISH PARTY BUILDINGS IN ARBIL

Record ID: 358233

  • Title: IRAQ: TWO SUICIDE BOMBERS KILL FIFTY PEOPLE INCLUDING LOCAL OFFICIALS IN IDENTICALLY TIMED ATTACKS ON KURDISH PARTY BUILDINGS IN ARBIL
  • Date: 1st February 2004
  • Summary: ARBIL, IRAQ (FEBRUARY 1, 2004)(REUTERS) 1. GV: PEOPLE GATHERING IN FRONT OF PATRIOTIC UNION OF KURDISTAN (PUK) BUILDING 0.06 2. GV: FLAG ON TOP OF BUILDING 0.14 3. VARIOUS: DAMAGED INTERIOR OF PUK BUILDING (3 SHOTS) 0.47 4. LV: A SOLDIER TALKING TO TWO CIVILIANS OUTSIDE PUK BUILDING 0.54 5. VARIOUS: PUK BUILDING (4 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 16th February 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ARBIL, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA1P7PPLGRH9SOH1QIDHS7KUZGJ
  • Story Text: Two suicide bombers kill 50 in near-simultaneous
    attacks on two Kurdish parties in Iraq.




    Two suicide bombers strapped with explosives blew
    themselves up in near-simultaneous attacks on two Kurdish
    parties in Iraq on Sunday (February 1), killing at least 50
    people and wounding many more, medics and officials said.

    Medical officers at one of the hospitals that received
    victims of the blasts in the northern city of Arbil said
    they had the bodies of at least 50 people killed by the
    bombs.

    A party official said earlier that up to 200 people had
    been killed or hurt in the attacks on the Kurdistan
    Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
    (PUK), the main factions in Iraq's Kurdish north.

    The bombers struck at about 10:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) as
    party officials received visitors at their respective
    headquarters for a Muslim holiday celebration.

    PUK official Qubad Talabani said some people were
    trapped in debris.

    Lying on bloodstained sheets in a hospital bed, PUK
    member Idris Ahmed said the Eid celebration had been
    intended to unite Iraqis.

    Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. diplomat with long
    experience with the Kurds of northern Iraq, said people at
    the scene were in shock.

    Among the dead were Mehdi Khoshnau, deputy governor of
    Arbil province, as well as the city's police commander,
    officials said. Galbraith said Sami Abdul-Rahman, former
    deputy prime minister of the region and a senior KDP
    negotiator on the proposed Iraqi constitution, was also
    killed.

    Witnesses said the attackers made their way through
    checkpoints outside the party offices, where dozens of
    people had gathered to celebrate the first day of the
    holiday.

    Several senior PUK officials have been targeted in
    assassination attempts in recent years, attacks they blamed
    on the Muslim militant Ansar al-Islam group.

    Ansar had a stronghold in PUK territory ahead of the
    war that ousted Saddam Hussein last year, and U.S.

    officials say the organisation has regrouped and was
    involved in several attacks in recent months.

    Iraq's U.S.-led occupiers and Iraqi security forces
    have been on high alert for attacks during the Eid al-Adha
    holiday. A string of blasts across the country killed at
    least 18 people on Saturday.

    Arbil has been the site of a string of recent attacks,
    including a car bombing at the Interior Ministry that
    killed at least four people in December.

    The KDP and PUK ran an enclave of northern Iraq as an
    autonomous zone under U.S. protection following the 1991
    Gulf War. Fighters from the two groups fought alongside
    U.S. soldiers in the war that ousted Saddam Hussein.


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