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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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July 11th,
2009 - Iraq Bombings Kill 8 in Capital, Northern Village |
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Iraq Bombings Kill
8 in Capital, Northern Village By Sameer N. Yacoub Associated Press July 11, 2009 Baghdad - A car bomb
exploded in an alley Saturday in a village in northern Iraq, killing at least
four people, wounding others and destroying eight homes, police said. Another
four people died in a bombing in Baghdad. Thirty-eight people were
wounded and several shops and cars were also damaged in the 3 p.m. explosion
in the northern village of Kugjeli, according to a police officer in Ninevah
Province, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized
to speak to journalists. Most of the victims were
inside their homes when the bomb exploded near the main street of the
predominantly Shiite village, about five kilometers (three miles) east of the
city of Mosul. In the Baghdad attack, a
bomb was placed at the gate of a billiards hall in the central district of
Karrada. Four civilians died and 15 were injured, all of them youths in the
hall, a police officer and a hospital medic said. Both spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. A bomb in the same area
wounded four police on patrol. Violence remains at low
levels in Iraq compared with previous years, but bombings continue to kill
scores of people. The attacks have raised concerns as the U.S. military draws
down troop numbers and Iraq prepares for parliamentary elections on Jan. 30. U.S. combat troops in Iraq
completed a withdrawal from urban areas to outlying bases at the end of last
month, ahead of a planned pullout by all American forces by the end of 2011. Separately, the U.S.
military said an American soldier in Iraq shot and killed a truck driver, an
Iraqi citizen, who did not respond to warnings to stop on a highway north of
Baghdad. The shooting happened at
around 2:15 a.m. on Friday when the truck approached a U.S. logistics convoy
that had stopped because one of its vehicles had broken down, the military
said. Soldiers flashed vehicle
lights and shouted for the truck to stop, but it continued to accelerate,
according to the military. A soldier thought the convoy was under attack and
fired on the truck, the military said. A teenage passenger in the vehicle,
identified by Iraqi officials as a brother of the driver, was not harmed. Maj. Derrick Cheng, a U.S.
military spokesman, described the killing as "tragic" and said the
soldier acted in line with terms of a joint U.S.-Iraqi security deal. The
soldier was unlikely to face any Iraqi prosecution because the security
agreement allows for U.S. jurisdiction over American soldiers in cases when
they are on duty and outside their bases. U.S. and Iraqi forces were
jointly investigating the incident, which occurred between the cities of
Tikrit and Balad. An Iraqi police officer and
a medic said the truck driver was taken to a hospital in Dujail, where he
died of his wounds. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were
not authorized to speak to the media. Such incidents were common
in the early years of the war in Iraq, deepening hostility toward U.S.
forces. Diminishing violence and a more culturally sensitive approach by U.S.
forces since 2007 have helped appease large segments of the population and
isolated militants. The U.S. military also
reported the death of a civilian Iraqi motorist in a head-on collision
Thursday night with a U.S. Army Stryker vehicle, the lead vehicle of a
U.S.-Iraqi convoy in western Diyala province. The convoy slowed to let the
car pass and the Stryker driver signaled with the horn and headlights, but
the car did not alter speed or bearing, the military said. At least one soldier
in the Stryker was injured. Associated Press Writers
Christopher Torchia and Mazin Yahya in Baghdad contributed to this report. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwK_CSpBxsNuVUEaDuOwmSSCiqGwD99CEGF00 |