WORLD / Middle East
Toll in Iraq bombings could surpass 150
(AP)
Updated: 2007-07-08 19:44
A man cover the face of Iraqi intelligence officer Hecor Mohammed, after
he died in the hospital after he was attacked by gunmen in central
Kirkuk, Iraq, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Friday, July
6, 2007. [AP]
BAGHDAD - A flurry of bombings in Baghdad killed 26 people Sunday, and
officials said the death toll from a giant suicide truck blast that
devastated the market of a Shiite town north of the capital a day earlier
could be more than 130.
Officials earlier had said Saturday's bombing in the town of Armili
killed 115 people, one of the deadliest attacks in Iraq in months. The
blast suggested Sunni insurgents are moving further north to strike in
less protected regions beyond the US security crackdown in Baghdad and on
the capital's northern doorstep.
The string of attacks Sunday morning in Baghdad made clear that
extremists can still unleash organized strikes in the capital despite a
relative lull in violence there in past weeks amid the US offensives.
Two car bombs detonated nearly simultaneously in Baghdad's mostly Shiite
Karrada district, killing eight people. The first hit at 10:30 a.m., near
a closed restaurant, destroying stalls and soft drink stands. Two
passers-by were killed and eight wounded, a police official said.
The area is near the offices of the Supreme Islamic Council in Iraq, the
biggest Shiite party in parliament, and is believed to be among the most
protected parts of the city.
About five minutes later, the second car exploded about a mile away,
hitting shops selling leather jackets and shoes. Six people were killed
and seven wounded, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
On Baghdad's southwestern outskirts, a bomb hit a truckload of newly
recruited Iraqi soldiers being brought into the capital to join the
crackdown, killing 15 soldiers and wounding 20, a police official at the
nearest police station said, also speaking on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to release the information.
Also, a bomb hidden under a car went off at the entrance of Shorja market
�� a central Baghdad market that has been hit repeatedly by insurgents ��
killing three civilians and wounding five, police said.
The US military announced that an American soldier was killed in combat a
day earlier in Salahuddin province. It did not provide details.
Armili residents on Sunday buried about 70 of the dead from the truck
bombing the previous morning. Mourners flowed into mosques and funeral
tents set up in the town's main street, where black banners were hung on
the walls with names of the dead.
Iraqi army and police forces were out in increased numbers in the streets
and closed off entrances to the town to prevent attacks on the funerals
�� a frequent target of Sunni insurgents, said Brig. Abbas Mohammed Amin,
chief of police in the nearby city of Tuz Khurmato.
The toll from the attack in the farming town of 26,000 �� mostly Shiites
from Iraq's ethnic Turkoman minority �� was still not clear. Abdullah
Jabara, deputy governor of Salahuddin province where the town is located,
said Saturday the toll from the blast was 115 dead �� nearly
three-quarters of them women, children and elderly.
On Sunday, Amin put the toll at 150 dead, while Abbas al-Bayati, a Shiite
Turkoman lawmaker, told reporters 130 had been killed.
The count was difficult because of the town's remote location and because
many of the dead initially had been buried under rubble that took hours
to clear. Saturday's blast ripped through the town market during crowded
morning shopping, destroying dozens of old mud-brick homes and shops.
Al-Bayati sharply criticized the security situation in the town, saying
its police force had only 30 members and that the Interior Ministry had
finally responded to requests for more two days before the attack. He
said authorities should help residents "arm themselves" to protect them
if the security forces cannot.
He said an Iraqi army battalion was moved out of the Armili region to
Baghdad earlier this year to help in the crackdown in the capital.
Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari denied that,
saying the army's 4th Division was in the area.
Armili residents say regions like theirs are being left exposed and
vulnerable. Tensions are constantly high between the town's Shiite
Turkoman population and the Sunni Arabs who dominate the surrounding
villages. Iraqi security presence is scant in the remote region, far from
Salahuddin's administrative center and the eye of officials.
"The number of Iraqi police and army in this area is too low. This is a
farming area with a lot of empty areas, so it's neglected. There's not
even much presence of government officials," said Haytham Khalaf, 37, an
Amirli resident whose niece was injured. He accused local Sunnis of
helping al-Qaida set up a presence there.
US forces are waging an offensive in the city of Baqouba, just north of
Baghdad, to uproot al-Qaida militants and Sunni insurgents using the
region to launch attacks in the capital. But American commanders
acknowledged that many extremists fled Baqouba before the sweep began in
mid-June.
Al-Bayati said Sunni insurgents had fled to the Himrin region, a swathe
of mountains southeast of Armili, between it and Baqouba.
The top US commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, told The Associated
Press on Saturday he expected Sunni extremists to try to "pull off a
variety of sensational attacks and grab the headlines to create a
`mini-Tet.'"
He was referring to the 1968 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Tet offensive
that undermined public support for the Vietnam War in the United States.
The US military may be forced to tolerate attacks further north as they
focus on pacifying Baghdad and its surroundings, hoping that calm in the
capital will give the government time to take key political steps.
Washington is pressing Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to pass measures to
encourage Sunni Arabs to turn away from support of the insurgency to back
the government.
Efforts to pass the measures, however, continue to be tied down in
political feuding between Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish parties in
al-Maliki's fragile coalition.
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