IRAQ: Death toll continues to rise in Baghdad as sectarian attacks follow U.S. assault on militants

Record ID: 661031

  • Title: IRAQ: Death toll continues to rise in Baghdad as sectarian attacks follow U.S. assault on militants
  • Date: 7th July 2006
  • Summary: (BN07)BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JULY 7, 2006) (REUTERS) NIGHT SCENES PAN: AMBULANCE APPROACHING SITE WHERE CLASHES TOOK PLACE CLOSE UP: PEOPLE CRYING CLOSE UP: TWO MEN CRYING NEAR BODIES CLOSE UP: BODIES ON THE FLOOR/ PEOPLE SITTING BESIDE CLOSE UP: WOUNDED TEENAGE BOY LYING ON BED INSIDE HOSPITAL WARD PAN TO RELATIVE PROTESTING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN SAYING: "Wha
  • Embargoed: 22nd July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Iraq
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVAAJVZDFOMUHL9YVB7EDCPU2FY
  • Story Text: Bomb blasts rocked three Sunni mosques in Baghdad shortly after noon prayers on Friday (July 7), killing at 11 people and wounding nine, police said.
    At least six people were killed and two others wounded by a car bomb near a mosque in the western al-Juhad district, while three people were killed and two wounded when a mortar round landed on a mosque in the capital's northern al-Wazeriya district.
    Civilians said that the blast was caused by a bomb.
    "A roadside bomb went off here, killing five people and wounding two others. It wrecked also a number of cars," said Hussein Saad Hussein, a witness.
    Seven people were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded outside a third Sunni mosque in Baquba, a town 64 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad in Diyala province, police said.
    The Iraqi government has imposed a regular Friday curfew banning all movement of vehicles in Baghdad and Diyala to stop such attacks, which they say are aimed at fuelling sectarian tensions between Shi'ites and minority Sunnis.
    Earlier on Friday at least nine people were killed and more than 30 wounded in clashes between U.S. troops and the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in eastern Baghdad early on Friday (July 7), the Interior ministry said.
    The U.S. military said in a statement the raid had been by Iraqi soldiers, aimed at capturing an insurgent leader responsible for numerous deaths.
    An Interior Ministry source said the clashes erupted when U.S. forces backed by helicopters raided houses in the slum district of Sadr City, a stronghold, of Sadr's Mehdi Army at 2 a.m. (2200 GMT).
    They said there were nine dead in total and 31 wounded and that four houses were destroyed.
    The U.S. military said the wanted man in Sadr City, whom it declined to name, was seized after a firefight in which Iraqi troops killed or wounded 30-40 gunmen. The bodies of at least seven people, including two women, were seen in hospital.
    One woman at the hospital vented her feelings passionately, "What did the innocent people do? Our houses were damaged. Where is the mercy of God? What did we do? God cannot accept what happened to us!" she said.
    Shi'ite political sources named the target of the raid as Abu Deraa, a locally famed -- and feared -- commander nominally attached to the Mehdi Army militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. They said it appeared Abu Deraa was still at large.
    Sources also said the raid was part of major efforts to find a Sunni woman lawmaker whose kidnap prompted the biggest Sunni parliamentary bloc to boycott the assembly this week, he had previously been disciplined by Sadr, the political sources said.
    The U.S. military said the man targeted may have been running a splinter movement. A spokesman declined to confirm that Abu Deraa was the "high-level insurgent" it had taken. Shi'ites source said Abu Deraa has been at odds with Sadr.
    Sadr aides condemned the operation and local people accused the troops of killing innocent civilians. The young cleric is fiercely opposed to the U.S. occupation but his supporters also hold key posts in the Shi'ite-dominated coalition government.
    Political sources said the raid was launched in part to find Taiseer al-Mashhadani, a Sunni lawmaker kidnapped on Saturday in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad with seven of her bodyguards. Her colleagues have pointed the finger of blame at Shi'ite militias.
    Maliki has vowed to disband the militias, which analysts say pose a threat to his seven-week-old national unity coalition government. Sadr's followers staged two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004 and have clashed several times with U.S. troops in recent weeks.
    A spokesman for Sadr in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf called the operation a "criminal act".
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