Baghdad gold market attacked
Source: Agencies |
May 26, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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MASKED gunmen shot up a gold jewelry market in Baghdad yesterday, killing 15 people before they fled with a large quantity of gold in their arms, police and hospital officials said.
The attack was the latest in a crime wave in the capital that has swelled over the past year as sectarian violence in Iraq has ebbed. Many of those involved are believed to be battle-hardened former insurgents unable to find legitimate work.
After the attacks in the southwestern neighborhood of Baiyaa, a dead body that police and witnesses said was one of the assailants was covered with a cloth on the bloodstained sidewalk amid shattered glass of the shop windows. The area was sealed off.
Mohammed Elaiwi Nassir, a witness who owns a real estate office nearby, said the attackers were heavily armed including with rocket-propelled grenades while security forces were slow to respond.
He said the gunmen arrived around 11:20am in five or six cars, one of them a minibus. Each vehicle had three masked gunmen inside, some armed with RPGs and others with machine-guns and pistols fitted with silencers.
"They started shooting into the air to clear the street and also threw percussion grenades," said 45-year old Nassir. "Then they started shooting directly the gold shops showcases from outside and scooping up gold in their hands," he added. "The attack lasted for about 15 minutes during which only one policeman showed up, but he was shot in his shoulder and leg by the attackers. After 30 minutes, the security forces came."
The attacked shops are clustered in two buildings at one end of a busy market street with many other types of stores. There are normally police patrolling the market area, but it was not immediately clear whether the gold shops had any additional security in place at the time of the attack.
Police said the gunmen had covered their faces with traditional Arab headscarves. They first set off a roadside bomb near the shops, killing four bystanders and wounding three, city police officials said.
Then they opened fire on 12 shops, killing nine gold shop owners or their workers and two bystanders.
Jewelry stores have been frequent targets of the crime wave, along with homes, cars, currency exchanges, pawn shops and banks. But yesterday's attack was one of the deadliest.
There are few statistics tracking on crimes, in part because the government remains focused on the bombings and other insurgent attacks that continue throughout Iraq.
The attack was the latest in a crime wave in the capital that has swelled over the past year as sectarian violence in Iraq has ebbed. Many of those involved are believed to be battle-hardened former insurgents unable to find legitimate work.
After the attacks in the southwestern neighborhood of Baiyaa, a dead body that police and witnesses said was one of the assailants was covered with a cloth on the bloodstained sidewalk amid shattered glass of the shop windows. The area was sealed off.
Mohammed Elaiwi Nassir, a witness who owns a real estate office nearby, said the attackers were heavily armed including with rocket-propelled grenades while security forces were slow to respond.
He said the gunmen arrived around 11:20am in five or six cars, one of them a minibus. Each vehicle had three masked gunmen inside, some armed with RPGs and others with machine-guns and pistols fitted with silencers.
"They started shooting into the air to clear the street and also threw percussion grenades," said 45-year old Nassir. "Then they started shooting directly the gold shops showcases from outside and scooping up gold in their hands," he added. "The attack lasted for about 15 minutes during which only one policeman showed up, but he was shot in his shoulder and leg by the attackers. After 30 minutes, the security forces came."
The attacked shops are clustered in two buildings at one end of a busy market street with many other types of stores. There are normally police patrolling the market area, but it was not immediately clear whether the gold shops had any additional security in place at the time of the attack.
Police said the gunmen had covered their faces with traditional Arab headscarves. They first set off a roadside bomb near the shops, killing four bystanders and wounding three, city police officials said.
Then they opened fire on 12 shops, killing nine gold shop owners or their workers and two bystanders.
Jewelry stores have been frequent targets of the crime wave, along with homes, cars, currency exchanges, pawn shops and banks. But yesterday's attack was one of the deadliest.
There are few statistics tracking on crimes, in part because the government remains focused on the bombings and other insurgent attacks that continue throughout Iraq.
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