46 killed in spate of attacks in Iraq
Source: Agencies |
August 26, 2010, Thursday
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BOMBERS and gunmen launched an apparently coordinated string of attacks against Iraqi government forces yesterday, killing at least 46 people.
There were no claims of responsibility for the spate of attacks. But their scale and reach, from one end of the country to the other, underscored insurgent efforts to prove their might against security forces.
The deadliest attack came in Kut, 160 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber blew up a car inside a security barrier between a police station and the provincial government's headquarters. Police said 16 people were killed, all but one of them policemen. An estimated 90 people were wounded.
Government employee Yahya al-Shimari, 40, was headed to work when the blast hit.
"I rushed to the scene to help evacuate the people, and saw body parts and hands scattered on the ground and dead bodies of policemen," he said. "I also saw a traffic policeman lying dead on the ground. There were about 15 cars that were burnt."
An eerily similar attack came in a north Baghdad neighborhood, where a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb in a parking lot behind a police station.
Fifteen people were killed, including six policemen. Another 58 were wounded in the blast that left a crater three meters wide and trapped people beneath the rubble of felled houses nearby.
Four others were killed in small bursts of violence in Baghdad.
A senior Iraqi intelligence official raised the possibility that some of the attackers had inside help. The official said the Baghdad suicide bombing bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida, but said unnamed political factions helped coordinate some of the other attacks.
Since Iraq's March 7 elections failed to produce a clear winner, US officials have feared that competing political factions could stir up widespread violence. Iraqi leaders so far have tried to end the political impasse peacefully.
But US and Iraqi officials alike acknowledge growing frustration throughout the nation and say that politically motivated violence could undo security gains made over the past few years.
"What is going on in the country?" said Abu Mohammed, an eyewitness to a car bombing near Baghdad's Adan Square that killed two passers-by. "Where is the protection, where are the security troops?"
From the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to the holy Shiite shrine town of Karbala, scattered bombings killed and wounded scores more.
There were no claims of responsibility for the spate of attacks. But their scale and reach, from one end of the country to the other, underscored insurgent efforts to prove their might against security forces.
The deadliest attack came in Kut, 160 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber blew up a car inside a security barrier between a police station and the provincial government's headquarters. Police said 16 people were killed, all but one of them policemen. An estimated 90 people were wounded.
Government employee Yahya al-Shimari, 40, was headed to work when the blast hit.
"I rushed to the scene to help evacuate the people, and saw body parts and hands scattered on the ground and dead bodies of policemen," he said. "I also saw a traffic policeman lying dead on the ground. There were about 15 cars that were burnt."
An eerily similar attack came in a north Baghdad neighborhood, where a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb in a parking lot behind a police station.
Fifteen people were killed, including six policemen. Another 58 were wounded in the blast that left a crater three meters wide and trapped people beneath the rubble of felled houses nearby.
Four others were killed in small bursts of violence in Baghdad.
A senior Iraqi intelligence official raised the possibility that some of the attackers had inside help. The official said the Baghdad suicide bombing bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida, but said unnamed political factions helped coordinate some of the other attacks.
Since Iraq's March 7 elections failed to produce a clear winner, US officials have feared that competing political factions could stir up widespread violence. Iraqi leaders so far have tried to end the political impasse peacefully.
But US and Iraqi officials alike acknowledge growing frustration throughout the nation and say that politically motivated violence could undo security gains made over the past few years.
"What is going on in the country?" said Abu Mohammed, an eyewitness to a car bombing near Baghdad's Adan Square that killed two passers-by. "Where is the protection, where are the security troops?"
From the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to the holy Shiite shrine town of Karbala, scattered bombings killed and wounded scores more.
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