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Violence in Iraq kills 56, bombs target officials
BAGHDAD - Two suicide car bombs killed 22 people in northern Iraq on Tuesday in attacks targeting a police chief and a tribal leader working with US forces, part of an upsurge in violence that killed 56 across the country.In Baghdad, foreign security guards escorting a convoy of four vehicles through the city centre killed two women when they opened fire on a car, the government said. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said private US security firm Blackwater was not involved in the deaths of the two women in Baghdad. There has been an incident, an attack on civilians. Two Iraqi women were killed, Dabbagh said, adding the company was also not Iraqi, but declining to give more details. One witness said the guards fired a warning shot when a car carrying two women and children pulled out of a side road. But the driver edged forward and the security guards opened fire. US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo, referring to the incident, said there may be a contractual relationship with a US non-governmental organisation (NGO). She did not elaborate. In the northern town of Baiji, officials said the police chief was wounded and the condition of the Sunni Arab tribal leader was unknown after the two suicide car bombings. Baiji, 180 km (110 miles) north of the capital in Salahuddin province, is a major oil refining centre fed with crude oil and gas from the vast fields under the nearby city of Kirkuk. We were standing beside the mosque waiting for sunrise. We saw a blue minibus approaching, the imam of Baijis Abdullah al-Nami mosque told Reuters Television. One of those killed told me earlier that he wanted to lead prayers tomorrow. Police said the other bomb was in a pick-up truck aimed at Baijis police chief, Colonel Saad Nifous, who was wounded in the blast. Police and the US military both said the bomb by the mosque had targeted a Sunni Arab tribal leader. Posted by: Steve White 2007-10-10 |
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