Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Breaking News: Three car bombs rip through the southern city of Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 27 people are dead after three car bombs ripped through the southern Iraqi city of Amara on Wednesday, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.
Many of the dead and wounded are women and children, reported al-Forat, an Iraqi television station affiliated with the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq.
Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, head of the Interior Ministry's National Command Center, confirmed the death toll and said 151 people were wounded.
Khalaf and a committee were heading to Amara to investigate the bombings. The Interior Ministry has fired the city's police chief in the aftermath of the attacks, Khalaf said.
According to the ministry, a car bomb went off on Dijla Street, a commercial thoroughfare in the predominantly Shiite city.
As onlookers gathered at the scene of the first blast, a second car bomb erupted in a nearby garage a few minutes later. A third car bomb went off in the garage a few minutes afterward.
Video footage showed ambulances and police racing to the scene. Vehicles burned as black smoke filled the street and victims' clothing lay in pools of blood.
A state television station, al-Iraqiya, reported earlier that there was a roadside bomb in addition to the three car bombs.
Police have sealed off the area and set up extra checkpoints for security. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the bombs, but al-Forat reported that police detained two suspects with fake identification cards.
The blasts erupted in the central section of the city, which is capital of Maysan province on the Iranian border. Maysan, which has hosted factional fighting between Shiite rivals vying for power, has been under Iraqi security control for most of the year.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, citing widely reported security successes in Baghdad and other parts of the war-ravaged nation, said the "enemies of Iraq" were discouraged by the reported lull in violence and "any criminal act they would commit will be nothing but a desperate attempt to draw attention from the obvious successes."
He further called the bombings "another ring in the chain of conspiracy against the Iraqi people."
British troops handed control of Amara to Iraqi forces in August 2006, two months before fighting broke out between police and the Mehdi Army, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. Iraqi police and troops formally took over security responsibilities in April.
The Mehdi Army also has clashed with the Badr Brigade, the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq's militia. The bitter rivals, who signed a truce several weeks ago, have been mired in power struggles in Iraq's southern provinces and in other Shiite enclaves.
The rivalry between Shiite factions reached a pinnacle last year when fighting broke out during a pilgrimage in Karbala. The violence quickly spread to the capital and Babil province, prompting al-Sadr in August to suspend Mehdi Army activities for six months.
The U.S. military has said al-Sadr's order is one of the primary factors that has led to a decrease in violence across Iraq.
In October, al-Sadr and Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim signed an agreement ending months of hostility between their powerful movements.
Britain, meanwhile, has been working to withdraw its troops from southern Iraq. Despite the recent violence, the region has been more stable than Baghdad and other regions. Britain, which has roughly 5,000 troops there, hopes to cut its force to 4,500 by year's end and to 2,500 by spring.
Britain's Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the British military will transfer control of Basra province to Iraqi forces Sunday. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh also confirmed the date, saying the Maysan attacks will not affect the handover.
Other developments
• A car bomb detonated Wednesday in eastern Baghdad, killing five Iraqi civilians and wounding 15 others, an Interior Ministry official said. The official said the bombing occurred in Ghadeer, a Christian neighborhood in the predominantly Shiite New Baghdad district.
• Fourteen insurgents were killed and 12 others detained in U.S.-led coalition raids Tuesday and Wednesday. The raids targeted al Qaeda in Iraq networks in the central part of the country, the U.S. military said. The killings occurred in Diyala province, and the detentions were in Baghdad, Tikrit and south of Yusufiya.
• The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the process of resettling Iraqi refugees in other countries is not moving as speedily as it would like. The agency said it has "exceeded its target of 20,000 Iraqi refugee resettlement referrals for 2007," but at the same time it noted that only about 22 percent of the referrals have departed for resettlement countries.
Many of the dead and wounded are women and children, reported al-Forat, an Iraqi television station affiliated with the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq. Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim Khalaf, head of the Interior Ministry's National Command Center, confirmed the death toll and said 151 people were wounded.
Khalaf and a committee were heading to Amara to investigate the bombings. The Interior Ministry has fired the city's police chief in the aftermath of the attacks, Khalaf said.
According to the ministry, a car bomb went off on Dijla Street, a commercial thoroughfare in the predominantly Shiite city.
As onlookers gathered at the scene of the first blast, a second car bomb erupted in a nearby garage a few minutes later. A third car bomb went off in the garage a few minutes afterward.
Video footage showed ambulances and police racing to the scene. Vehicles burned as black smoke filled the street and victims' clothing lay in pools of blood.
A state television station, al-Iraqiya, reported earlier that there was a roadside bomb in addition to the three car bombs.
Police have sealed off the area and set up extra checkpoints for security. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the bombs, but al-Forat reported that police detained two suspects with fake identification cards.
The blasts erupted in the central section of the city, which is capital of Maysan province on the Iranian border. Maysan, which has hosted factional fighting between Shiite rivals vying for power, has been under Iraqi security control for most of the year.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, citing widely reported security successes in Baghdad and other parts of the war-ravaged nation, said the "enemies of Iraq" were discouraged by the reported lull in violence and "any criminal act they would commit will be nothing but a desperate attempt to draw attention from the obvious successes."
He further called the bombings "another ring in the chain of conspiracy against the Iraqi people."
British troops handed control of Amara to Iraqi forces in August 2006, two months before fighting broke out between police and the Mehdi Army, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia. Iraqi police and troops formally took over security responsibilities in April.
The Mehdi Army also has clashed with the Badr Brigade, the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq's militia. The bitter rivals, who signed a truce several weeks ago, have been mired in power struggles in Iraq's southern provinces and in other Shiite enclaves.
The rivalry between Shiite factions reached a pinnacle last year when fighting broke out during a pilgrimage in Karbala. The violence quickly spread to the capital and Babil province, prompting al-Sadr in August to suspend Mehdi Army activities for six months.
The U.S. military has said al-Sadr's order is one of the primary factors that has led to a decrease in violence across Iraq.
In October, al-Sadr and Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim signed an agreement ending months of hostility between their powerful movements.
Britain, meanwhile, has been working to withdraw its troops from southern Iraq. Despite the recent violence, the region has been more stable than Baghdad and other regions. Britain, which has roughly 5,000 troops there, hopes to cut its force to 4,500 by year's end and to 2,500 by spring.
Britain's Defense Ministry said Wednesday that the British military will transfer control of Basra province to Iraqi forces Sunday. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh also confirmed the date, saying the Maysan attacks will not affect the handover.
Other developments
• A car bomb detonated Wednesday in eastern Baghdad, killing five Iraqi civilians and wounding 15 others, an Interior Ministry official said. The official said the bombing occurred in Ghadeer, a Christian neighborhood in the predominantly Shiite New Baghdad district.
• Fourteen insurgents were killed and 12 others detained in U.S.-led coalition raids Tuesday and Wednesday. The raids targeted al Qaeda in Iraq networks in the central part of the country, the U.S. military said. The killings occurred in Diyala province, and the detentions were in Baghdad, Tikrit and south of Yusufiya.
• The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the process of resettling Iraqi refugees in other countries is not moving as speedily as it would like. The agency said it has "exceeded its target of 20,000 Iraqi refugee resettlement referrals for 2007," but at the same time it noted that only about 22 percent of the referrals have departed for resettlement countries.
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