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9 killed in Mosul car bombing
Twelve people died and at least 50 were injured yesterday in two attacks by Iraqi insurgents in northern Iraq. A car bomb killed nine and injured 45 at a police station in the northwestern city of Mosul in the latest of a series of suicide strikes on coalition forces or their local allies. Near the restive oil-rich city of Kirkuk in the northeast of the country, three US soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division died when a roadside bomb ripped through their convoy. A total of 522 US soldiers have so far been killed in the Iraq conflict, 364 in combat. Witnesses in Mosul, Iraqâs third largest city, said a suicide attacker drove through a barricade in front of the police station before blowing up his vehicle. The attacks came on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Many of the attacks in Mosul have been linked to Ansar al-Islam, the Islamic militant group who were based in northern Iraq until last yearâs war. Last week senior American officials said they believed that attacks by Muslim militants were being co-ordinated by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an experienced Jordanian-born activist with ties to European terror networks. Last month an operative with links to Osama bin Laden, was arrested while entering northern Iraq. Hassan Ghul, a Yemeni, is believed by US officials to have met with Zarqawi to plan attacks against US and coalition forces. I thought Ghul was a Pakistani, but go on ... The Mosul attack appeared timed to cause maximum casualties. Saturday was pay day and the two-storey police station was crowded with staff at the time of the mid-morning blast. In Baghdad yesterday, a bomb exploded under the car of a police colonel, slightly injuring five children in the street. In Kirkuk, which has been the site of significant inter-ethnic tension in recent months, unidentified gunmen shot and injured an ethnic Turkoman leader, and killed his assistant yesterday. Sounds like somebodyâs trying to stir up ethnic tensions in Kirkuk. If the perps turn out to be Kurds, my guess would be that theyâre the Ansar al-Islam or KADEK variety. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-02-01 |
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