IRAQ: SUICIDE BOMBERS TARGET SECURITY FORCES WHILE MUSLIM CLERIC DENOUNCES BAGHDAD SECURITY CRACKDOWN AS SECTARIANISM

Record ID: 358832

  • Title: IRAQ: SUICIDE BOMBERS TARGET SECURITY FORCES WHILE MUSLIM CLERIC DENOUNCES BAGHDAD SECURITY CRACKDOWN AS SECTARIANISM
  • Date: 6th June 2005
  • Summary: (W3) NORTHERN RAMADI, IRAQ (JUNE 7, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF DAMAGED CIVILIAN CARS (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. CHILDREN NEXT TO THE CARS 0.16 3. VARIOUS OF BURNED OUT CARS (2 SHOTS) 0.24 (W3) FALLUJA, IRAQ (JUNE 7, 2005) (REUTERS) 4. VARIOUS OF BURNED OUT CIVILIAN CAR LEFT BY A ROADSIDE SURROUNDED BY POLICEMEN (2 SHOTS) 0.
  • Embargoed: 21st June 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RAMADI/ FALLUJA/ BAGHDAD/ HAWIJA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVA5ZLI2JO575VMLG1JTNZ9JAESB
  • Story Text: Suicide bombers target security forces in Iraq while
    cleric denounces Baghdad security crackdown as
    sectarianism.


    Bombers struck across Iraq on Tuesday (June 7) with
    blasts near the northern city of Kirkuk and in Baghdad
    killing at least 19 people and wounding nearly 70, ending
    several days of relative calm.

    Of five car bombs, four were in or near the northern
    town of Hawija, close to the strategic oil city of Kirkuk.

    One suicide bomber blew up his car near a U.S. base,
    another beside an Iraqi army checkpoint and a third close
    to a market, police said.

    A fourth car bomb struck a checkpoint in the town of
    Abasi, near Hawija. In total, 19 people were killed and 38
    wounded in the four attacks, Major-General Anwar Mohammed
    Amin, the Iraqi army commander in Kirkuk, told Reuters.

    In Baghdad, a car bomb detonated beside a police
    patrol, wounding 28 people, including two policemen, police
    said.

    Witnesses said two civilians were killed when U.S.

    forces opened fire randomly in the city of Ramadi early on
    Tuesday (June 7)
    The parents of two girls were killed. Their teenage
    daughter describes finding their bodies:
    "We were still awake at six o'clock in the morning. My
    parents were not at the house. We searched for them and
    found their bodies, covered in blood, lying on the ground
    in front of the house. My father lay next to my mother."
    The shooting followed a roadside bomb atack on a U.S.

    convoy in the Ta'mim neighbourhood in the southern part of
    Ramadi.

    They said that a U.S. armoured vehicle was damaged in
    the blast.

    On Monday (June 6), a roadside bomb targetted a U.S.

    convoy in the northern part of Ramadi, killing three
    civilians and wounded seven others, witnesses added.

    In Falluja, witnesses said on Tuesday (June 7) that
    gunmen killed three people and wounded another in a convoy
    supplying U.S. forces with food.

    They said that the gunmen opened fire after a roadside
    bomb went off in the western side of Falluja near the U.S.

    base in the city.

    Since April 28, when Iraq's new Shi'ite-led cabinet was
    announced, insurgents have sharply escalated attacks,
    killing more than 800 Iraqis and 88 U.S. troops. May was
    the deadliest month for U.S. forces since January.

    The Iraqi government has mounted it's biggest operation
    yet against the insurgency in Baghdad.

    Operation Lightning has seen the deployment of 40,000
    security forces in the capital, and is aimed at restoring
    security. The operation, now in its second week, is the
    biggest test yet for Iraq's fledgling forces. Dozens of
    suspected insurgents have been arrested in sweeping
    search-and-arrest operations, and caches of weapons have
    been recovered.

    Major general Abu al-Waleed, Commander al-Dheeb Brigade
    (Wolf Brigade), which is leading the operation, said: "The
    security forces are carrying out operations very well; they
    are well coordinated, arresting a large number of
    terrorists in the area. I think that this week is better than last
    week. There is an an improvement in the security
    situation."
    But the Muslim clerics Association, the most
    influential Sunni group, attacked the operation as
    targeting the Sunni Arabs.

    Spokesman Sheikh Abdul Salam al-Kbaisi said: "There is
    a sectarian operation carried out by the government to
    strike hard at the Sunni Arabs, either through arrest, or
    through expulsion, or assassination."
    Sunni Arabs dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein but few
    voted in the January elections because of calls from Sunni
    Arab parties for a boycott and fears of insurgent attacks.

    There are only 17 Sunni Arab lawmakers in the
    275-member parliament, and only two in the committee of 55
    Iraqis that is overseeing the writing of a constitution.

    In an effort to defuse sectarian tension and undermine
    the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency, the Shi'ite and
    Kurdish blocs that emerged strongest from January 30 polls
    are trying to involve more Sunni Arabs in the writing of a
    new constitution, the next key step in Iraq's path towards
    full democracy.
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