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June 3, 2007
Car Bomb Kills at Least 10 in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:37 a.m. ET
BAGHDAD (AP) -- A parked car bomb struck an open-air market northeast of
Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than two
dozen, police said.
The explosion occurred just after noon as the commercial area was packed
with shoppers in Balad Ruz, police said, giving the casualty toll. Balad Ruz
is a predominantly Shiite enclave in the volatile Diyala province that has
recently faced a campaign of violence and intimidation by suspected Sunni
insurgents.
On March 7, a suicide bomber struck a cafe in the city, 45 miles northeast
of Baghdad, killing 30 people.
Elsewhere, gunmen killed a police officer and a relative as they were
driving in Baiyaa, a neighborhood in western Baghdad that has seen a recent
rise in sectarian violence despite a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown aimed at
stopping such attacks.
The violence came a day after a vital bridge link between Baghdad and
northern Iraq was devastated by a bombing, and hours of mortar barrages
killed eight people in a Sunni neighborhood of the capital that is
surrounded by Shiites.
The U.S. casualty toll mounted for May, third-deadliest month for Americans
in the four-year-old war: A soldier wounded in a roadside bomb blast in
Baghdad last Wednesday was reported to have died of his wounds, raising the
month's death toll to at least 127.
Tensions have heightened in recent weeks in northern Iraq as Turkey has
built up its military forces on Iraq's border, a move clearly meant to
pressure Iraq to rein in the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK,
separatists who launch raids into southeast Turkey's Kurdish region from
hideouts in Iraq.
Turkey's political and military leaders have been debating whether to try to
root out those bases, and perhaps set up a buffer zone across the frontier
as the Turkish army has done in the past. Turkey's military chief said
Thursday the army was ready and only awaiting orders for a cross-border
offensive.
In an interview taped for broadcast Sunday on ABC-TV's ''This Week,'' Iraq's
Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, also said Iraqi leaders had convinced the
Iraq-based militants to cease their attacks, ''and they did it.''
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, ending a visit to the Kurdish north on
Saturday, also sought to ease the growing tensions but warned his government
won't allow the relatively peaceful area ''to be turned into a
battleground.''
''If there are some problems, we should not rely on weapons and threats, or
use violence and power because this will increase tension and deepen
problems,'' he told a news conference in the regional capital of Irbil.
Some 90 miles to the south on Saturday, a bomb heavily damaged the Sarhat
Bridge, a key crossing on a major road connecting Baghdad with Irbil,
Sulaimaniya and other Kurdish cities of the north, police reported. The
attack appeared to be the latest by insurgents who have tried to cripple
vital Iraqi supply arteries, including Tigris River bridges in Baghdad.
Small cars could still cross the damaged Sarhat span with difficulty, but
trucks were being rerouted to a dangerous detour through areas of Diyala
province among the most active in the anti-government, anti-U.S. insurgency,
said police Brig. Sarhat Qadir.
In farm fields about 40 miles to the northwest late Saturday, gunmen killed
two Arab farmers and wounded six others, police in nearby Kirkuk reported.
The attack may have reflected tensions between Iraq's majority Arabs and
minority Kurds over future control of the Kirkuk area.
The Baghdad mortar barrages slammed into Fadhil, a Sunni enclave in the
Shiite-dominated eastern half of the city. The sporadic attacks began at
1:30 a.m. and lasted until 7 a.m., damaging five houses, killing eight
people and wounding 25 others, police said.
A policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to
deal with the media, said a woman and child were among the dead.
Sunni and Shiite districts frequently exchange mortar and other fire in
Iraq's continuing sectarian conflict.
In western Baghdad, a well-known Sunni cleric, Ali Khudir al-Zind, was
killed in a drive-by shooting as he walked near his home, police said.
Elsewhere in the city's western half, gunmen in two separate locations
killed three people, and police found two bullet-riddled bodies of people
who had been bound and blindfolded and showed signs of torture.
North of Baghdad, a Sunni tribal sheik and village mayor, Rokan Mutlak
al-Jibouri, whose tribe is said to be opposed to the activities of al-Qaida
in Iraq, was shot to death while leaving his home for work Saturday morning,
Brig. Qadir said.
In all, at least 57 people were killed or found dead on Saturday, including
26 bullet-riddled bodies that turned up on the streets of Baghdad bearing
signs of torture -- apparent victims of so-called sectarian death squads
usually run by Shiite militias.
Car Bomb Kills at Least 10 in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:37 a.m. ET
BAGHDAD (AP) -- A parked car bomb struck an open-air market northeast of
Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than two
dozen, police said.
The explosion occurred just after noon as the commercial area was packed
with shoppers in Balad Ruz, police said, giving the casualty toll. Balad Ruz
is a predominantly Shiite enclave in the volatile Diyala province that has
recently faced a campaign of violence and intimidation by suspected Sunni
insurgents.
On March 7, a suicide bomber struck a cafe in the city, 45 miles northeast
of Baghdad, killing 30 people.
Elsewhere, gunmen killed a police officer and a relative as they were
driving in Baiyaa, a neighborhood in western Baghdad that has seen a recent
rise in sectarian violence despite a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown aimed at
stopping such attacks.
The violence came a day after a vital bridge link between Baghdad and
northern Iraq was devastated by a bombing, and hours of mortar barrages
killed eight people in a Sunni neighborhood of the capital that is
surrounded by Shiites.
The U.S. casualty toll mounted for May, third-deadliest month for Americans
in the four-year-old war: A soldier wounded in a roadside bomb blast in
Baghdad last Wednesday was reported to have died of his wounds, raising the
month's death toll to at least 127.
Tensions have heightened in recent weeks in northern Iraq as Turkey has
built up its military forces on Iraq's border, a move clearly meant to
pressure Iraq to rein in the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK,
separatists who launch raids into southeast Turkey's Kurdish region from
hideouts in Iraq.
Turkey's political and military leaders have been debating whether to try to
root out those bases, and perhaps set up a buffer zone across the frontier
as the Turkish army has done in the past. Turkey's military chief said
Thursday the army was ready and only awaiting orders for a cross-border
offensive.
In an interview taped for broadcast Sunday on ABC-TV's ''This Week,'' Iraq's
Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, also said Iraqi leaders had convinced the
Iraq-based militants to cease their attacks, ''and they did it.''
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, ending a visit to the Kurdish north on
Saturday, also sought to ease the growing tensions but warned his government
won't allow the relatively peaceful area ''to be turned into a
battleground.''
''If there are some problems, we should not rely on weapons and threats, or
use violence and power because this will increase tension and deepen
problems,'' he told a news conference in the regional capital of Irbil.
Some 90 miles to the south on Saturday, a bomb heavily damaged the Sarhat
Bridge, a key crossing on a major road connecting Baghdad with Irbil,
Sulaimaniya and other Kurdish cities of the north, police reported. The
attack appeared to be the latest by insurgents who have tried to cripple
vital Iraqi supply arteries, including Tigris River bridges in Baghdad.
Small cars could still cross the damaged Sarhat span with difficulty, but
trucks were being rerouted to a dangerous detour through areas of Diyala
province among the most active in the anti-government, anti-U.S. insurgency,
said police Brig. Sarhat Qadir.
In farm fields about 40 miles to the northwest late Saturday, gunmen killed
two Arab farmers and wounded six others, police in nearby Kirkuk reported.
The attack may have reflected tensions between Iraq's majority Arabs and
minority Kurds over future control of the Kirkuk area.
The Baghdad mortar barrages slammed into Fadhil, a Sunni enclave in the
Shiite-dominated eastern half of the city. The sporadic attacks began at
1:30 a.m. and lasted until 7 a.m., damaging five houses, killing eight
people and wounding 25 others, police said.
A policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to
deal with the media, said a woman and child were among the dead.
Sunni and Shiite districts frequently exchange mortar and other fire in
Iraq's continuing sectarian conflict.
In western Baghdad, a well-known Sunni cleric, Ali Khudir al-Zind, was
killed in a drive-by shooting as he walked near his home, police said.
Elsewhere in the city's western half, gunmen in two separate locations
killed three people, and police found two bullet-riddled bodies of people
who had been bound and blindfolded and showed signs of torture.
North of Baghdad, a Sunni tribal sheik and village mayor, Rokan Mutlak
al-Jibouri, whose tribe is said to be opposed to the activities of al-Qaida
in Iraq, was shot to death while leaving his home for work Saturday morning,
Brig. Qadir said.
In all, at least 57 people were killed or found dead on Saturday, including
26 bullet-riddled bodies that turned up on the streets of Baghdad bearing
signs of torture -- apparent victims of so-called sectarian death squads
usually run by Shiite militias.
