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January 2, 2008
30 Killed in Baghdad Funeral Bombing
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and QAIS MIZHER
BAGHDAD - Thirty people were killed Tuesday when a suicide bomber strode
into a gathering of mourners at a home in eastern Baghdad and detonated a
vest packed with explosives, the Interior Ministry said. The attack was the
most brazen and deadly in the capital in months.
Many victims were children, and the force of the blast scattered severed
arms and legs about the site of the attack, a home where scores of friends
and relatives had gathered to pay tribute to a man killed three days earlier
by a car bomb in Tayaran Square in central Baghdad.
There was no immediate explanation of who carried out the attack or why the
mourners were singled out. One neighbor said the man being mourned was a
Sunni.
One woman who escaped death ran about the street screaming and crying
hysterically that five of her sons had been killed. Then she collapsed, said
a car salesman who works nearby.
"There were many children killed," said the salesman, who gave his name as
Abu Firas. "You could see pieces of flesh everywhere."
The late afternoon blast in the Zayuna neighborhood was among a string of
killings on Tuesday that included the kidnapping and killing of five family
members in the volatile Diyala Province. The violence underscored anew that
Iraq remains dangerous even though killings have fallen to what Iraqi
authorities say is the lowest level in two years.
All told, at least 40 people were killed across Iraq on Tuesday, just hours
after revelers celebrated the arrival of the new year in public places for
the first time in years.
The Zayuna blast was unusual not only for its heavy toll, but also because
it took place in a neighborhood that has a large Iraqi military and police
presence, with many checkpoints and barriers devised to keep attackers out.
An Iraqi military base is also about a quarter-mile from the site of the
attack, a mixed area of Shiites and Sunnis.
An official from the Interior Ministry said at least 38 mourners were
wounded in the attack, in addition to the 30 who were killed. A spokesman
for the American military command in Baghdad, Lt. Patrick Evans of the Navy,
said early reports provided to the military indicated that 25 people were
killed and 20 wounded.
The killer entered a house where relatives and friends had gathered to
remember Nabil Hussein Alwan, who was killed and buried after the Tayaran
Square attack three days earlier.
The attack on the Baghdad home followed the gruesome abduction and killing
of five relatives Tuesday morning in Jalawlah, a village northeast of
Muqdadiya in Diyala Province. One of the five killed was a policeman, Iraqi
police officials in Diyala said.
An Iraqi Army official in Diyala also said nine Iraqi soldiers were injured
when bombs exploded as soldiers came to reinforce a checkpoint in the
province that had been attacked by insurgents.
In the latest sign that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other extremists are
stepping up attacks against Sunni militia groups working with United States
forces, the decapitated head of a member of one such group was found north
of Muqdadiya, the police said.
Also, the police in Salahuddin Province said Al Qaeda fighters had kidnapped
a farmer and killed his son in Dhuluiya, and also stole 200 of the farmer's
sheep. Sheik Ahmad Hameed, a leader of the Sunni awakening forces in
Dhuluiya, said many Al Qaeda fighters had migrated to Dhuluiya and Samarra
from nearby Diyala and had been carrying out vicious attacks against anyone
they believed had been working with the anti-extremist Sunni groups.
"Qaeda fighters have been attacking awakening members in revenge, but the
people insist on defeating Qaeda," Sheik Hameed said, referring to the
homegrown extremist group that American intelligence has concluded is
foreign led. But dozens of families have also fled the area recently because
of the growing threat from the Qaeda fighters, he added.
Gunmen killed three people in a village 40 miles south of Kirkuk, a police
official there said. An improvised bomb also wounded three Iraqi soldiers
west of the city.
30 Killed in Baghdad Funeral Bombing
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and QAIS MIZHER
BAGHDAD - Thirty people were killed Tuesday when a suicide bomber strode
into a gathering of mourners at a home in eastern Baghdad and detonated a
vest packed with explosives, the Interior Ministry said. The attack was the
most brazen and deadly in the capital in months.
Many victims were children, and the force of the blast scattered severed
arms and legs about the site of the attack, a home where scores of friends
and relatives had gathered to pay tribute to a man killed three days earlier
by a car bomb in Tayaran Square in central Baghdad.
There was no immediate explanation of who carried out the attack or why the
mourners were singled out. One neighbor said the man being mourned was a
Sunni.
One woman who escaped death ran about the street screaming and crying
hysterically that five of her sons had been killed. Then she collapsed, said
a car salesman who works nearby.
"There were many children killed," said the salesman, who gave his name as
Abu Firas. "You could see pieces of flesh everywhere."
The late afternoon blast in the Zayuna neighborhood was among a string of
killings on Tuesday that included the kidnapping and killing of five family
members in the volatile Diyala Province. The violence underscored anew that
Iraq remains dangerous even though killings have fallen to what Iraqi
authorities say is the lowest level in two years.
All told, at least 40 people were killed across Iraq on Tuesday, just hours
after revelers celebrated the arrival of the new year in public places for
the first time in years.
The Zayuna blast was unusual not only for its heavy toll, but also because
it took place in a neighborhood that has a large Iraqi military and police
presence, with many checkpoints and barriers devised to keep attackers out.
An Iraqi military base is also about a quarter-mile from the site of the
attack, a mixed area of Shiites and Sunnis.
An official from the Interior Ministry said at least 38 mourners were
wounded in the attack, in addition to the 30 who were killed. A spokesman
for the American military command in Baghdad, Lt. Patrick Evans of the Navy,
said early reports provided to the military indicated that 25 people were
killed and 20 wounded.
The killer entered a house where relatives and friends had gathered to
remember Nabil Hussein Alwan, who was killed and buried after the Tayaran
Square attack three days earlier.
The attack on the Baghdad home followed the gruesome abduction and killing
of five relatives Tuesday morning in Jalawlah, a village northeast of
Muqdadiya in Diyala Province. One of the five killed was a policeman, Iraqi
police officials in Diyala said.
An Iraqi Army official in Diyala also said nine Iraqi soldiers were injured
when bombs exploded as soldiers came to reinforce a checkpoint in the
province that had been attacked by insurgents.
In the latest sign that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other extremists are
stepping up attacks against Sunni militia groups working with United States
forces, the decapitated head of a member of one such group was found north
of Muqdadiya, the police said.
Also, the police in Salahuddin Province said Al Qaeda fighters had kidnapped
a farmer and killed his son in Dhuluiya, and also stole 200 of the farmer's
sheep. Sheik Ahmad Hameed, a leader of the Sunni awakening forces in
Dhuluiya, said many Al Qaeda fighters had migrated to Dhuluiya and Samarra
from nearby Diyala and had been carrying out vicious attacks against anyone
they believed had been working with the anti-extremist Sunni groups.
"Qaeda fighters have been attacking awakening members in revenge, but the
people insist on defeating Qaeda," Sheik Hameed said, referring to the
homegrown extremist group that American intelligence has concluded is
foreign led. But dozens of families have also fled the area recently because
of the growing threat from the Qaeda fighters, he added.
Gunmen killed three people in a village 40 miles south of Kirkuk, a police
official there said. An improvised bomb also wounded three Iraqi soldiers
west of the city.
