825 died in 'new' Iraq

2005-06-03 12:12

Baghdad - Ten Iraqis were killed in an overnight suicide bombing in a remote village north of Baghdad, officials said on Friday, taking the number of people killed during a bloody day of violence in Iraq to almost 50.

Thursday's carnage claimed the lives of at least 49 people, including more than 30 in four suicide bombings across the country's north and a Shiite cleric in the southern city of Basra.

At least 825 people, including United States forces, have been killed since the new Shiite-led government was announced on April 28, underscoring the fragility of this country's reconstruction.

Iraq's Interior Minister Bayan Jabr on Thursday claimed the government offensive seeking to root out rebels in Baghdad had scored big gains, saying this week's sweep by Iraqi soldiers and police captured 700 suspected insurgents and killed 28 militants.

Unstable cities

But the incessant violence launched by a host of militants highlights how far security authorities need to go to stop the killings.

Early on Friday, gunmen killed Razzouq Mohammed Ibrahim, an Iraqi contractor in charge of renovating a mosque in western Samarra, and stole his car, police Lieutenant Qassim Mohammed said.

Two Iraqi civilians, including a child, were killed when their car swerved into a US Bradley fighting vehicle near Khalis, 80km north of Baghdad, early on Friday, the US military said.

Late on Thursday, a suicide car bomber targeted a home where a group of people had gathered, killing at least 10 Iraqis and wounding 10 more in Saud.

Another suicide car bomber trying to attack a convoy of civilian contract workers in Kirkuk killed a young boy and three other Iraqi bystanders and wounded 11.

Four people were killed and four others wounded by a suicide car bombing in Baqouba, including a deputy provincial council leader. In the northern city of Mosul, two parked motorcycles rigged with bombs blew up near a coffee shop, killing five Iraqis and wounding 13.

In the capital, men in three speeding cars sprayed gunfire into a crowded market in the northern neighbourhood of Hurriyah, killing nine people. Two other Baghdad attacks killed four people and injured three.

Gunmen shot dead Shiite cleric Ali Abdul Hussein outside his home in Basra and at least 10 Shiite and Sunni clerics have been killed in the latest surge in violence.

As part of the campaign against insurgents, Iraq's government launched in Baghdad on Sunday the biggest Iraqi offensive since Saddam Hussein's fall two years ago. Before the offensive, authorities controlled only eight of Baghdad's 23 entrances, Jabr said.

Citing figures obtained from an Interior Ministry research centre, Jabr said 12 000 Iraqi civilians were killed during the past 18 months.

- AP