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Suicide Blast in Emergency Room Near Fallujah Kills 3
 A female suicide bomber detonated explosives in the emergency room of a hospital near Fallujah on Sunday in one of several violent incidents in Iraq that left at least 10 people dead over the weekend, Iraqi officials said. The woman apparently targeted armed guards who were being treated for wounds suffered Sunday during another bombing, said Capt. Mohammed al-Dulaimy, a spokesman for the Fallujah police department. Two physicians, Harith al-Ani and his wife, Salwa al-Dulaimy, were among three people killed in the attack at Amriyah Hospital, south of Fallujah, Capt. Dulaimy said. A day earlier, a suicide bomber killed five people and wounded nine at a checkpoint near Ramadi manned by police officers and female guards hired to search women, an official at Ramadi Hospital said. Both attacks took place in Anbar province. The U.S. military turned over primary responsibility for security in Anbar to provincial officials two months ago. Security in the province, once among the most volatile in Iraq, has improved markedly in recent months, prompting U.S. Marines to downscale their presence there. Violence in Iraq has dropped to a four-year low. But extremist groups continue to carry out attacks, often targeting Iraqi security forces. In Diyala province, north of Baghdad, a roadside bomb at a market in the town of Khalis killed at least two people, according to Col. Raghib Radhi al-Omairi of the Diyala police. Four policemen were among 13 people wounded in the attack, he said. Meanwhile, in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, three policemen were wounded when a gunman opened fire on their checkpoint, said a police source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Elsewhere on Sunday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad criticized a yet-to-be-ratified agreement that would allow U.S. troops to remain in Iraq when the United Nations mandate that sanctions their presence expires at the end of the year. "The Americans say that their withdrawal from Iraq would create chaos," he said in a speech in Damascus, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency. "This is unacceptable. . . . It aims at suggesting that the Iraqi people are unable to govern themselves and administer their own affairs. It aims to keep the occupation in place." Iranian officials have also spoken out against the agreement, which has been the subject of drawn-out negotiations. Washington accuses both Iran and Syria of exacerbating violence in Iraq. Posted by: Fred 2008-11-11 |
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