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| Iraq |
| Shia militia groups blamed for bombing in Baghdad |
| 2008-06-14 |
| The US military blamed Shia militia fighters yesterday for a bombing the day before that killed six Iraqi civilians and wounded nine other people, including two American soldiers in Baghdad. US airstrikes also destroyed a booby-trapped house believed to be an Al Qaeda in Iraq hideout yesterday, killing four suspected insurgents northeast of the capital, the military said. The blast occurred at about 9:45am on Wednesday when an armour-piercing roadside bomb targeted an American convoy in a northern section of the capital, the military said. The statement, which gave the casualty toll, said the bomb was an explosively formed penetrator, or EFP, a signature weapon of Shia militias that the US alleges comes from Iran. At least seven kilogrammes of explosives were used, it said. "These special groups criminals continue to indiscriminately attack, kill and injure innocent Iraqi civilians who are just trying to live their daily lives," said Lt-Colonel Steve Stover, a spokesman for US forces in Baghdad. The US military uses the term "special groups criminals" to refer to what it says are Iranian-backed militia factions refusing to follow a cease-fire order by anti-US cleric Muqtada Al Sadr. The explosion occurred near a bridge and those killed included a woman and a seven-year-old boy. The attack came as the US and Iraqi militaries press forward with operations targeting the Shia militia fighters. Many of them are believed to have fled a crackdown in Baghdad's main Shia stronghold of Sadr City. |
| Posted by:Fred |