IRAQ: 4 PEOPLE ARE WOUNDED IN ROADSIDE BOMB AND A SUNNI CLERIC IS GUNNED DOWN IN TWO SEPERATE ATTACKS IN BAGHDAD/ 1000'S CALL FOR CLOSURE OF JORDANIAN EMBASSY AFTER DEATH OF 125 PEOPLE IN RECENT HILLA ATTACK

Record ID: 358532

  • Title: IRAQ: 4 PEOPLE ARE WOUNDED IN ROADSIDE BOMB AND A SUNNI CLERIC IS GUNNED DOWN IN TWO SEPERATE ATTACKS IN BAGHDAD/ 1000'S CALL FOR CLOSURE OF JORDANIAN EMBASSY AFTER DEATH OF 125 PEOPLE IN RECENT HILLA ATTACK
  • Date: 17th March 2005
  • Summary: (BN08) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (MARCH 18, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF BLAST SITE 0.06 2. CLOSER VIEW OF SITE WHERE BOMB EXPLODED 0.12 3. CLOSE OF CRATER CAUSED BY BLAST 0.19 4. CAR WITH SMASHED WINDSCREEN HIT BY BLAST 0.25 5. CLOSE OF DAMAGED CAR (2 SHOTS) 0.35 6. CU: BLOOD AND PIECES OF GLASS IN SEAT WELL OF CAR 0.41 7.
  • Embargoed: 1st April 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAEIFICPO1N4PC7SPXV7ZU54ZQM
  • Story Text: Violence continues in Iraq as four civilians are
    wounded by a roadside bomb and a Sunni cleric is gunned
    down; thousands call for closure of Jordanian embassy after
    death of 125 in Hilla attack.


    A roadside bomb exploded on Friday (March 18)
    minutes after an Iraqi police vehicle drove past in
    Baghdad's southern al-Saydiya neighbourhood, damaging two
    civilian vehicles and wounding four people who were inside.

    One witness said a father and son were seriously
    wounded with shrapnel injuries to their leg and head.

    The blast also shattered windows of a nearby house.

    Insurgents frequently attack Iraqi police and guards
    with suicide and car bombs in an effort to set back U.S.

    attempts to create a viable local security force, and
    because the Iraqi units are less well defended and less
    well armed than American soldiers.

    In overnight violence a Sunni Muslim cleric was gunned
    down in a drive-by shooting late on Thursday (March 17) in
    eastern Baghdad.

    Cleric Abdel Rahim al-Samarrai, Imam of that al-Nitaqeen Mosque
    was
    crossing the street to the mosque
    for prayer in Baghdad's northeast neighbourhood when he was
    killed by gunfire from a car.

    "Yesterday before al-Isha prayer (last prayer of the
    day) the man (the cleric) stepped out of his car and was
    crossing the street when a car pulled alongside with two or
    three people inside and opened car on him. We could not
    identify them," said Nizar Ashraf, who was nearby when the
    attack happened.

    The cleric was a member of the Muslim Clerics
    Association, the most influential Iraqi Sunni Muslim group
    in Iraq, which was formed after the fall of Saddam Hussein
    to try and fill a political vacuum among Sunnis.

    The Association played a key role in the negotiations
    and release of some of the foreign hostages kidnapped in
    the spate of hostage- taking that hit Iraq since April.

    Meanwhile hundreds of mainly Shi'ite demonstrators
    demanded the closure of the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad
    following reports that relatives of a Jordanian who carried
    out a devastating suicide bombing in Hilla two weeks ago,
    killing 125 people and wounding 130 others, have celebrated
    him as a martyr.

    Carrying banners and waving Iraqi flags, crowds
    gathered outside the embassy shouting: "No to Jordan",
    "Close your embassy, we do not want to see you here" and
    chanting slogans against the Jordanian King Abdullah II and
    his government.

    Most of the demonstrators were members of the Shi'ite
    majority newly empowered by Jan. 30 elections that stripped
    minority Sunnis of privileges enjoyed under Saddam Hussein.

    Angry demonstrators ripped up the Jordanian flag and
    urged the Iraqi government to file charges against the
    family of Raad al-Banna, who the media say carried out the
    suicide car bombings on February 28 in the town of Hilla.

    Anti-Jordanian sentiment has been spreading since
    Iraqis read newspaper reports that Jordan's Banna blew
    himself up beside people lining up for jobs in the Shi'ite
    town of Hilla in the single bloodiest attack in postwar
    Iraq.

    Iraqi police and army surrounded the embassy building
    to prevent protesters from breaking into the embassy.

    According to the media reports, Banna's family
    organised a funeral for him during which he was a hailed "
    a martyr'".

    Amman has rejected the accusations against it and
    insisted it condemned the Hilla bombing, the worst single
    attack in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion on March 2003.

    But attempts to defuse growing anger over Hilla and
    other violence had little impact in the streets of Baghdad
    and the southern city of Najaf, where protesters also
    gathered. The protests were the biggest outpouring of
    Shi'ite fury over Sunni insurgent attacks that have killed
    thousands.

    Al-Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu
    Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the blast.

    The Iraqi government has condemned the family's
    celebrations. Iraqi officials say Sunni Muslim militants
    from countries such as Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia carry
    out suicide bombings against Shi'ites in a bid to stoke
    sectarian tensions and spark a civil war under the
    inspiration of Zarqawi.

    jrc/np

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