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Deadly explosions rock Iraq
BAGHDAD: At least 27 bombs struck cities and towns across Iraq yesterday, killing at least 51 people and wounding nearly 250, despite a massive security clampdown ahead of next week's Arab League summit in Baghdad.It was Iraq's bloodiest day in nearly a month, and the scale of the coordinated explosions in more than a dozen cities showed an apparent determination by insurgents to prove that the government cannot keep the country safe ahead of the summit. "The goal of today's attacks was to present a negative image of the security situation in Iraq," government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh said. "Security efforts will be escalated to counteract terrorist groups' attacks and to fill loopholes used by them to infiltrate security, whether in Baghdad or other provinces." Yesterday's deadliest incident occurred in the southern city of Kerbala, where twin explosions killed 13 people and wounded 48 during the morning rush hour, according to Jamal Mahdi, a Kerbala Health Department spokesman. "The second explosion caused the biggest destruction. I saw body parts, fingers, hands thrown on the road," 23-year-old shop owner Murtadha Ali Kadhim said. "The security forces are stupid because they always gather at the site of an explosion and then a second explosion occurs. They become a target."
Security has been stepped up across the city's checkpoints, where thorough searches have backed up traffic for hours in recent days. In the northern city of Kirkuk, two car bombs exploded near a police headquarters, killing nine people and wounding 42, police and health sources said. In Baghdad, a car bomb killed four and wounded 11. Police in Baquba said they had found and defused nine bombs, including one in a booby-trapped car which was parked on the road with a decapitated body.
Posted by: Steve White 2012-03-21 |
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