Iraqi suicide bomber kills 7
2004-12-14 10:39
Baghdad - A suicide car bomber killed seven people when he struck a checkpoint at Baghdad's Green Zone early on Tuesday, the second attack in two days at the district that houses Iraq's interim government and foreign embassies, officials said.
Police Lieutenant Rafid Abid said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.
As insurgents continued to step up attacks against United States and Iraqi forces ahead of next month's elections, the country's interim president said Washington was wrong for dismantling Iraq's security forces, including its 350 000-strong army, after last year's invasion.
"Definitely dissolving the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior was a big mistake," Ghazi al-Yawer told British Broadcasting Corporation radio, saying it would have been more effective to screen out former regime loyalists than to rebuild from scratch.
Morale boosting visit
US military commanders say American forces will be in Iraq for several years and that troop numbers will rise from 138 000 to 150 000 before the January 30 national elections, which many Iraqis fear could be targeted by militants opposed to the occupation and bent on derailing the political process.
Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Richard Myers, arrived on Tuesday in Iraq for a morale boosting visit to the troops. US celebrities, including actor Robin Williams, American football star John Elway and sports announcer Leeann Tweeden, accompanied him.
American and Iraqi leaders had hoped the ouster of Saddam - who was captured one year ago Monday on a farm near his hometown of Tikrit - and the detention or death of most of his top aides would deal the insurgency a knockout blow.
But the uprising has escalated and the number of attacks on US and Iraqi forces risen steadily. About 550 US soldiers died in the first year after the invasion was launched; almost 750 troops have died in the nine months that followed.
At least 13 people were injured in Tuesday's blast, said Dr Hassan AbdelSatar from Baghdad's Yarmouk Hospital.
On Monday, a suicide bomber killed 13 and injured 15 people near the Harthiyah gate on the western edge of the Green Zone, which is also home to the US Embassy.
Seven marines died in action on Sunday in Anbar, the deadliest day for the marines since eight of their service members were killed by a car bomb October 30 outside Fallujah. Another marine was killed on Saturday, bringing the total since Saturday to 10.
The deaths brought to nearly 1 300 the number of American troops killed in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003.
- AP