IRAQ: At least 15 Iraqi policemen killed in failed attempt to defuse rockets mounted on a truck in eastern Baghdad

Record ID: 359143

  • Title: IRAQ: At least 15 Iraqi policemen killed in failed attempt to defuse rockets mounted on a truck in eastern Baghdad
  • Date: 20th February 2008
  • Summary: BUILDING POCKMARKED WITH SHRAPNEL HOLES AND SCATTERED BRICKS ON GROUND DAMAGED BRICKS NEAR BUILDING DAMAGED BY BLAST BLOOD ON GROUND TRUCK POCKMARKED WITH SHRAPNEL HOLES
  • Embargoed: 6th March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Police
  • Reuters ID: LVA4FUZWL1JN0PQZKXN6MVE19F5O
  • Story Text: Iraqi police die in failed attempt to defuse rockets mounted on a truck in eastern Baghdad.
    Iraqi officials said 15 policemen were killed and more than 45 wounded in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday (February 20) as they tried to defuse rockets that had been prepared for launch from the back of a truck.
    The incident occurred as security forces responded to rockets being fired at two nearby army bases, one for U.S. and one for Iraqi forces, from the capital's Shi'ite Ubaidi district.
    "Al-Saqar Brigade of the Iraqi army came here and tried to defuse the truck. They were accompanied by photographers of the commander of the battalion, I think they were killed. At around seven to seven thirty (p.m.
    Baghdad time) a powerful blast took place and when we arrived here we saw that the truck had exploded. It was hard to defuse," said Mohammed Jassim, a resident of the area.
    Police said they had discovered a truck from which the rockets were being launched and as they attempted to deal with them, the truck exploded.
    An Iraqi army spokesman said the bomb disposal unit was trying to defuse eight rockets.
    Police put the death toll at 15, adding the blast had also set 10 cars alight.
    The U.S. military confirmed there had been an attack on one of their bases but had no further details.
    On Monday, five civilians were killed and 14 wounded when rockets landed on a Sunni residential area near Baghdad's international airport, in one of the capital's deadliest rocket attacks for months. Police said they were fired from a neighbouring Shi'ite area.
    The Iraqi military said on Saturday that attacks in Baghdad had dropped by up to 80 percent thanks to a year-long security crackdown on al Qaeda militants and feuding Sunni Arab and Shi'ite gunmen.
    But the U.S. military has warned that "special groups", by which it means rogue elements in the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, are still active and it has been targeting them aggressively.
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