31 Iraqis die in day of bombs
2005-04-29 22:34
Baghdad - A wave of car bombs killed at least 31 Iraqis and wounded more than 100 nationwide on Friday, just one day after parliament voted in the new cabinet of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari.
The attacks were "a desperate attempt by the terrorists to discredit the newly formed Iraqi government," according to the US military, which also announced the death of three of its soldiers in two separate car bomb attacks.
Baghdad and its surrounding area saw most of the bloody attacks with at least 10 car bomb explosions.
In Baghdad, the main onslaught began about 8am (0400 GMT) and targeted Iraq's fledgling security forces, leaving 23 people dead and more than 90 wounded.
Thirteen were killed and 50 were wounded in four apparently coordinated car bombings in the Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold of Adhamiyah and in the eastern district of Saligh, an interior ministry official said. Insurgents also fired mortar rounds into the area, adding to the chaos.
A photographer saw the remains of a hand, believed to belong to a suicide bomber, chained to the steering wheel of a burned out car.
In a second string of attacks, three car bombs blasted Madain, some 30km south of the capital, killing nine people and wounding 35, mostly civilians.
The town was swept by the Iraqi army only 10 days ago as commandos hunted for insurgents.
Later, near Maysalun Square in an eastern district of the capital, an Iraqi soldier was killed and three wounded by another car bomb attack around 10:30am (0630 GMT). Several policemen patrolling the area an hour later were hurt in yet another explosion.
One more car bomb exploded without causing damage near a Baghdad Shiite mosque.
Elsewhere in the country, a car bomb on Friday afternoon killed a policeman and wounded 15 people in Baquba.
Also in Baquba, local preacher Sheikh Abdel Razzak killed himself in a grenade explosion when Iraqi and US soldiers attempted to search his mosque, General Adel Mualan said.
Deadly explosions also struck the Kurdish northern city of Arbil, where a bomb disposal expert was killed while attempting to defuse a bomb, and the southern Shiite city of Basra, where a border guard was killed.
In Balad, north of Baghdad, two civilians were killed by a roadside bomb. In Dujail, an Iraqi soldier was killed by another roadside explosion.
A series of mortar attacks on a joint US-Iraqi base north of Baghdad killed two Iraqi recruits and a translator, and wounded four people, an Iraqi officer said.
Three US soldiers were killed and two others wounded in two separate car bomb attacks on Friday, the US military said.
Two US soldiers were killed when a car bomb went off near Diyarah, in the deadly Anbar province west of Baghdad. Another US soldier was killed in a separate attack when a car bomb went off north of Baghdad.
Iraq's government, approved by parliament on Thursday, will be sworn in next Tuesday.