Key bridge in Iraq destroyed

2009-10-17 19:04

Baghdad - A suicide bomber driving a dynamite-laden truck destroyed a key bridge on Saturday on a highway used by the departing US military, while separate attacks killed nine Iraqis, most of them security force members, police said.

There were no casualties in the blast that destroyed the bridge outside the city of Ramadi, which is about 125km west of Baghdad, said a local police officer. The highway is used heavily by the US military to transport equipment out of the country. It is also a major roadway for civilian traffic.

The highway links Iraq to neighbouring Syria and Jordan, where many Iraqis fled to escape sectarian violence.

Also on Saturday, an attack on an Iraqi army convoy just outside of the city of Fallujah killed four Iraqi soldiers and wounded 14, said a police officer in the city, which is about 65km west of Baghdad.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to journalists.

A US military spokesperson in Iraq's western Anbar province, where both Ramadi and Fallujah are located, confirmed Saturday's explosion on the highway bridge, which was close to two Iraqi military bases that host US troops in the area.

Lieutenant Colonel Curtis L Hill said US forces have "previously used the bridge", but he would not say what impact its destruction might have on US military convoys transporting equipment out of Iraq to meet President Barack Obama's deadline for a complete pullout of combat troops by August 2010.

The Anbar provincial police commander, Major General Tariq Yousif Mohammed, told The Associated Press that he believed the blast was aimed at Iraqis. Traffic in and around Ramadi was backed up after the early morning explosion.

"I don't think the Americans were targeted by the blast," he said.

Western Anbar province was once a hotbed of Iraq's Sunni-dominated insurgency and the scene of some of the most intense US fighting with militants. Violence subsided significantly after local tribes decided to align themselves with US forces instead of al-Qaeda.

Attacks have not been halted entirely. Last Sunday, 19 people were killed in a spate of coordinated car bombings across Ramadi, Anbar's provincial capital, sparking fears of a reinvigorated insurgency that could destabilize Iraq before January's crucial parliamentary elections.

- AP