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| Iraq |
| 30 dead in Iraqi car bombings |
| 2006-05-08 |
| A series of car bomb attacks in Baghdad and the Shiite Muslim holy city of Karbala killed about 30 Iraqis early Sunday, police and witnesses said. An Interior Ministry source also reported that 51 bodies had been found in the capital since Saturday. An attacker detonated a car bomb at an Iraqi army checkpoint in the Sunni Arab neighborhood of Azamiyah in northern Baghdad, killing at least six Iraqi soldiers and three civilians, hospital and Defense Ministry officials said. Shrapnel and blood covered the area, near Ibn al-Haitham College of Education. At least four vehicles were damaged. "It happened just as I was entering the college. I felt the heat reaching my body and shrapnel falling on me," said Yasmine Ahmed, 23, a student who sustained injuries to her face and an arm. The main hospital in the neighborhood received three bodies and treated 19 wounded people, officials said. Victims also were taken to another hospital, witnesses said. In northern Baghdad, a suicide bomber apparently targeting a police patrol blew himself up near the headquarters of the state-sponsored al-Sabah newspaper, in the Waziriya neighborhood. One civilian was killed and six others were wounded, said Col. Abdul Aziz al-Nuaimi, an Interior Ministry official. In Karbala, about 60 miles southwest of the capital, a bomber apparently targeting the Shiite Ahl al-Bait mosque set off his explosives when his car became snarled in heavy traffic, witnesses said. Several cars were destroyed in the blast, a half-mile from the Imam al-Hussein and Imam al-Abbas shrines. Witnesses said more than 20 people were killed. But the director of the main hospital in Karbala said three civilians were killed and 23 were wounded. It was not possible to confirm the death toll. The Interior Ministry source said the 51 bodies found in the capital were handcuffed, blindfolded and shot in the head and abdomen. In other violence Sunday, a U.S. Marine assigned to the 1st Marine Logistics Group died of wounds suffered during fighting in the western province of Anbar, the military said. In Kirkuk, north of Baghdad, gunmen kidnapped an Iraqi army officer on his way to work, said Col. Sherzad Abdullah of the Kirkuk police. The British Defense Ministry said "up to five" British personnel were killed in a helicopter crash in Basra on Saturday but did not confirm reports the helicopter was shot down. The crash touched off fighting between Iraqis and British troops. Politicians took a day off from their government-formation talks to gather in the city of Irbil to inaugurate the Kurds' regional government. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |