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| Iraq |
| Update on Iraqi suicide bombing, other violence |
| 2005-09-24 |
| An attacker detonated an explosive belt on Friday at a crowded bus stop in central Baghdad and killed six people, the latest bloodshed in what American officials have predicted will be a period of heightened violence before the national constitutional referendum in three weeks. Insurgents also killed three more American soldiers, including two near Ramadi, the restive provincial capital where insurgents and American forces have fought intense skirmishes recently. The suicide attack in central Baghdad happened around noon about a half-mile east of one of the main bridges over the Tigris River, an official with the Interior Ministry said. The attack, which also wounded 12 people, struck a site where workers gather to catch minibuses that shuttle around the city. The buses run mostly to Sadr City, the huge Shiite neighborhood in northeast Baghdad, and to other largely Shiite areas of eastern Baghdad - strongly suggesting that the blast was specifically intended to kill Shiites. The leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has called for a war against Shiites, who have become the favored targets of the Sunni Arab-led insurgency as well. Heavy fighting was reported in Ramadi, in Anbar Province, about 60 miles west of the capital. A police captain there, Nasir al-Alousi, told The Associated Press that American forces airlifted military equipment into a stadium in Ramadi before dawn on Friday and that periodic skirmishes near there and a nearby industrial area continued until the afternoon. The A.P. also quoted a doctor at the Ramadi hospital saying two people had been killed and eight others wounded in the clashes. Small-arms fire in Ramadi on Thursday killed one American soldier assigned to the Second Marine Division, the military said in a statement. Near Taqaddum, east of Ramadi, another soldier was killed and one more was wounded when insurgents detonated a large roadside bomb near the soldiers' patrol, the military said. On Friday, a roadside bomb detonated southeast of Baghdad about 8:30 p.m., killing a soldier, the military said. In Baghdad, an official with the Interior Ministry said a member of the committee charged with ensuring that former senior members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party are kept from influential roles in the new Iraqi establishment was killed Thursday night in the Shurta neighborhood of western Baghdad. A mid-level Interior Ministry official was also assassinated, the official said. Suicide bombers struck at least twice in southern Iraq. One killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded three others in an early afternoon attack on a checkpoint near Hilla, the Interior Ministry said. Another suicide bomber attacked a checkpoint north of Karbala on Friday night, killing a child and wounding four people, including two policemen. In Falluja, an Iraqi man arrested at an American military checkpoint on Sept. 20 was shot and killed by a marine while in detention. The Marines said that after the man had been arrested for suspected terrorist activities, he attacked a guard while being brought to a screening room for questioning. The guard shot him once in the chest with a handgun, the Marines said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Given the Constitution they are about to vote on, it would be rather amusing if the Iraqis decided to think of themselves as the Israelis in this situation as well. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-09-24 20:59 |
| #1 It seems the terrorists think of themselves as Palestinians, and of the Iraqis as Israelis. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-09-24 11:44 |