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Five killed in Iraq attacks
Baghdad (AFP) Dec 15, 2009 An eight-day-old baby was among five people killed in separate attacks Tuesday in Iraq, including car bombs in Baghdad and bombings that struck two churches in the main northern city of Mosul. Three car bombs rocked Baghdad, killing four people in the fourth wave of coordinated attacks in as many months, and wounding 14 others. Baby Teba Saad Yunis was killed in the Mosul bombings, her father Saad Yunis told AFP. Earlier a medical official had said that the victim was a man. Five children were among 40 people also wounded in Mosul, in the latest spate of attacks on Christians in the region, police and medics said. The Baghdad blasts struck government targets in the heart of the capital just days after top ministers were quizzed in parliament over security. The bombs came in quick succession from 7:30 am (0430 GMT) during the height of the morning rush hour, an interior ministry official said. The first struck a defence ministry car park close to the Iranian embassy, the second a car park opposite the foreign ministry and the third a car park near the ministry for emigres and displaced persons. "Dear God, how on earth do the police and soldiers let these booby-trapped vehicles through," wailed Um Ali, whose son Maki, 28, works in the car park hit by the third bomb and who was seriously wounded in the blast. Baraa al-Saraj, 26, who works inside the nearby Green Zone, the highly protected compound which houses the US and British embassies as well as government offices, said the bomb was clearly targeted at civil servants. "Generally, it's staff of the defence and emigres ministries who park here," he said. A senior officer told AFP that the bombers appeared to have gained entry to the defence ministry car park by donning military fatigues. "Two people in Iraqi army uniforms parked their car which exploded a few minutes later in this defence ministry car park which only soldiers are allowed to enter," he said speaking on condition of anonymity. Police sappers were able to defuse a fourth booby-trapped vehicle left near a checkpoint on a road leading into the Green Zone. It was the fourth time since August that bombers had succeeded in attacking official buildings in the capital despite the security measures in place. On August 19 a double suicide attack against the foreign and finance ministries killed 106 people and wounded some 600. On October 25 it was the turn of the justice ministry and a provincial office, with the blasts killing 153 people and wounding more than 500. And on December 8, five attacks in Baghdad killed 127 and wounded 448. The US military announced on Tuesday that Iraqi forces had detained three suspected Al-Qaeda members including one who was implicated in the December 8 attacks. "Elements of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces, with US forces advisors, arrested three alleged Al-Qaeda in Iraq members ...," a statement said. "One of the alleged AQI members is believed to be a high-level terrorist financier with direct ties to, among other violent acts, the December 8 attacks." In Mosul, a car bomb struck the Syrian Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary, which also operates an adjacent school in the city centre, police said. Initially the Medical City hospital said a man had been killed in the blast which also wounded 40 people, but it later revised its report to say a newborn baby died in the blast. "My eight-day-old baby daughter, Teba, was killed when the blast occurred and her aunt was wounded," the girl's father said. A 15-year-old student, Karim Jassem, said: "We were in class and the lesson was about to start when there was a huge blast and the windows shattered. I was wounded in the arm." The second bomb struck the Syrian Catholic Church of the Annunciation in the north of the city, without causing any casualties, police said. Last year, thousands of Christians fled Mosul in the face of violence that claimed the lives of 40 members of the community. Tuesday's attacks came just days after lawmakers grilled government ministers and other top officials over the repeated security breaches of recent months. Lawmakers criticised the lack of coordination between different ministries but the ministers blamed them for not approving more funds. The commander of US forces in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, predicted a rise in the number of attacks ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for March 7.
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Baghdad bomber called Syria before August attackBaghdad (AFP) Dec 14, 2009 Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Bolani told parliament on Monday that a suicide bomber who attacked the foreign ministry in August made a phone call to Syria before detonating his payload, an MP said. "He told us that the security services found the SIM card of the bomber in the attack on the foreign ministry, and that the last number that appeared was a number in Syria," Shiite MP Abbas ... read more |
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