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June 22nd,
2009 - Bombings and Shootings Kill More than 30 in Iraq |
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Bombings and Shootings
Kill More than 30 in Iraq By Kim Gamel Associated Press June 22, 2009 Baghdad - Bombings and
shootings killed more than 30 people across Iraq on Monday, including high
school students on their way to final exams, part of a new round of violence
ahead of next week's deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from urban areas. The attacks pushed the
three-day Iraqi death toll over 100, shattering a recent lull and adding
fresh doubt to the ability of government forces to protect people without
U.S. soldiers by their sides. American combat troops have already begun
moving from inner-city outposts to large bases outside Baghdad and other
cities. Overall levels of violence
remain low, but Iraqi officials have warned that militants will likely carry
out more attacks to erode public confidence in the government as the
Americans pull out of cities by June 30 - the first step toward a full
withdrawal from the country by the end of 2011. Many Iraqis support the
withdrawal timeline, outlined in a security pact that took effect this year.
But others fear militants will regroup without the visible presence of U.S.
soldiers. "There aren't enough
Iraqi army and police and they're ill-equipped to confront the
terrorists," said Abdul-Salam Mohammed, a 33-year-old car dealer in the
former insurgent stronghold of Baqouba, north of Baghdad. "The pullout
is not in our interest at this moment because we are still in the recovery
phase and not yet cured." Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki acknowledged over the weekend that more violence was likely but
insisted Iraqi forces were ready and called on Iraqis to remain steadfast in
their support. Monday's violence mainly
struck Shiite neighborhoods in the Baghdad area, starting with a roadside
bombing of a minibus carrying high school students from Sadr City to their
final exams. Police said the attack
killed at least three students and wounded 13 people. The U.S. military said
only one civilian was killed and eight wounded. Conflicting casualty tolls
are common following bombings in Iraq because victims are often taken to
multiple hospitals. The bus was pockmarked with
shrapnel, with blood-soaked notebooks and ID cards left on the seats and the
floor. A bomb planted under a car
also exploded on a road leading to a checkpoint that controls access to a
bridge into Baghdad's central Green Zone, killing at least five people and
wounding 20, according to police and hospital officials. The U.S. military put the casualty
toll at two killed and six wounded. A roadside bomb later
targeted a police patrol in another mainly Shiite district in eastern
Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 25, police said, although the U.S.
military said just two were killed. Hours later, a parked
motorcycle loaded with explosives blew up in an open-air public market in an
impoverished, predominantly Shiite area northeast of Baghdad, killing five
people and wounding 22, police and hospital officials said. A suicide car bomber also
targeted the mayor's offices in Abu Ghraib, a predominantly Sunni district
west of Baghdad, killing seven civilians, police said. The car exploded before
reaching the government building, damaging a nearby U.S. vehicle that was
providing security for a meeting, U.S. military spokesman Maj. David Shoupe
said, giving a lower casualty toll of four killed along with 10 wounded
including three U.S. soldiers. North of the capital and
close to the Iranian border, a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi army patrol, killing
three Iraqi soldiers near Khanaqin, according to the security headquarters in
Diyala province. Gunmen also killed at least
seven people in separate attacks in the northern city of Mosul, including a
woman and four Iraqi security forces, according to separate police reports. The Iraqi officials all
spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release
the information. The violence came two days
after the year's deadliest attack - a truck bombing that killed at least 75
people in a mainly Shiite Turkomen near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk. U.S. commanders have
acknowledged that car bombings and suicide attacks are hard to stop, but they
note that retaliatory violence has not led to anything approaching the levels
of sectarian bloodshed that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war in 2006. The Shiite cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr - whose loyalists fought fierce battles with the Americans before
they were routed by a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown and agreed to a cease-fire -
called on the government to protect Iraqis better. But in a statement, the
anti-American cleric blamed the violence on the continued presence of U.S.
troops in the country and demanded a faster withdrawal. He also called on
Iraqis to remain peaceful. "The Iraqi people are
heading toward a new phase that might lift them out from their
suffering," the cleric said. Associated Press Writer
Hamid Ahmed contributed to this report. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwK_CSpBxsNuVUEaDuOwmSSCiqGwD98VTVK00 |