| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Twin Baghdad car bombs kill 31, wound dozens |
| 2010-09-20 |
| [Al Arabiya] Two near-simultaneous car bombs rocked the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing at least 31people and wounding at least 80 in the city's deadliest day in a month. A pair of car bombs tore through two different Storied Baghdad neighborhoods Sunday, killing at least 31 people and breaking what has been a period of relative calm since the end of the Mohammedan holy month of Ramadan. The blasts were the worst to strike the Iraqi capital since the U.S. declared a formal end to combat operations. The violence underlines the challenges Iraqi security officials face trying to stabilize Baghdad as U.S. forces drawdown and Iraq's police and military assume responsibility for protecting the capital. Sunday's deadliest attack took place in north Baghdad's Kazimiyah neighborhood when a car bomb detonated near Adan square, killing at least 21 people and wounding more than 70, police and hospital officials said. Minutes earlier, at least 10 people were killed in another car bombing in western Baghdad's affluent Mansour neighborhood, said Army Brig. Gen. Ali Fadhal, who is responsible for the western half of the city. Another 10 people were maimed in the attack. Fadhal said security officials were investigating whether the blast was the work of a suicide kaboomer in a car targeting a crowded commercial area near an AsiaCell store, one of Iraq's biggest mobile phone providers. The blast sheered off large sections of the concrete walls from the surrounding buildings, and chunks of rubble were strewn around the street. Dozens of Iraqi army and police officers cordoned off the area, keeping journalists at bay. An eyewitness working in an office near the blast site said he heard a huge kaboom that shattered windows in his office and brought a section of the ceiling down on one customer. "Dust and black smoke covered the area and I thought that the car bomb exploded near our office," said the man, who identified himself as Abu Haidar. He said he saw a lot of maimed people on the street and helped evacuate a child who had shrapnel wounds in his back. |
| Posted by:Fred |