Dozens killed in Iraq

2009-07-09 13:02

Saad Abdul-Kadir

Baghdad - Two suicide bombers on Thursday killed at least 34 people and injured 70 in an attack on the home of an anti-terrorism officer in northern Iraq, while three roadside bombs in Baghdad killed seven others, authorities said.

The attacks came one day after car bombs in two Shi'ite villages near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul killed 16 civilians and injured more than two dozen, in a surge of violence in Iraq's troubled north following the withdrawal of US combat forces from cities to bases outside urban centres at the end of June.

Iraq is trying to build on security gains made in the past two years, though political reconciliation among the country's factions remains a troubled process and there is concern that insurgent attacks could trigger a slide back into sectarian violence.

Maj Gen Khalid al-Hamadani, the police chief of the northern Ninevah province, said the first bomber, wearing a police uniform and carrying a radio and a pistol, knocked on the door of a police officer who works as an investigator in the anti-terrorism police department in Tal Afar city.

When the officer opened the door around 06:30, the bomber detonated his explosive belt, killing the officer, his wife and son, al-Hamadani said. As people gathered near the scene, another suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt.

At about 07:30 in Baghdad, two roadside bombs exploded near an outdoor market in the Shi'ite district of Sadr City, killing six and injuring 31, said Maj Gen Qassim al-Mousawi, spokesperson for the city's operations command centre. Explosives experts defused a third bomb in the area.

Hassan Abdullah, a 32-year-old vegetable salesman, said he heard the first blast and went to see what was happening when a second bomb hidden in trash about 100 metres away exploded. He said he fell to the ground and was taken to a hospital with hand and leg injuries.

In the Karrada district of central Baghdad, one civilian was killed and five were injured in a roadside bomb attack on the convoy of Central Bank Gov Sinan al-Shibibi, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Three of the injured were guards of the governor, who himself was unharmed.

The bomb hit a vehicle carrying guards at the rear of the convoy as well as a nearby civilian car.

Also in Baghdad, a bomb concealed in a bicycle parked at a market in the Shi'ite-dominated area of Shurta al-Rabeaa exploded, wounding two people and damaging three shops, police said. Three other people were wounded, when a bomb exploded in a minibus in southwestern Baghdad.

- SAPA