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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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July 21st,
2009 - At Least 15 Die in Attacks Aimed at Shiite, Sunni and U.S. Targets |
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At Least 15
Die in Attacks Aimed at Shiite, Sunni and U.S. Targets in Baghdad By Timothy Williams New York Times July 21, 2009 Baghdad - A series of
bombings rocked Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 15 people and wounding
more than 100, and there were two separate attacks on American military
convoys in Baghdad in which at least three people were killed. The violence was the worst
to hit the Iraqi capital since American combat troops withdrew on June 30,
providing another test of Iraq’s ability to defend itself as Prime Minister
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki left for talks with President Obama in Washington. Iraqi military and police officials
have said they expected an increase in violence as armed groups aligned with
political parties seek to gain influence before parliamentary elections
scheduled for January. Otherwise, it was far from
clear who was behind the attacks, which struck disparate Sunni, Shiite and
American targets and cropped up across the city and throughout the day. Bombs tore into a bustling
sheep market, a crowd of impoverished job seekers and a funeral, security
officials said. Three bombs went off in Sadr City, a predominantly Shiite
neighborhood, and another in Dora, which is predominantly Sunni. At the sheep market, the
dead included an 8-year-old girl and her year-old sister, whom the older girl
was cradling in her arms, officials said. The first blasts went off at
5:30 a.m. in Sadr City, one of the poorest areas in the city. Two homemade
bombs exploded seconds apart near a sidewalk where day laborers had gathered
to wait for construction work, the police said. The bombs killed 4 people and
wounded 31, mostly men but also several women who had been selling the men
egg sandwiches, bowls of cream and tea for breakfast. “We do not care about
politicians or political issues,” Muhammad Ali, 32, a survivor, said later at
a hospital where he was being treated for shrapnel wounds in his shoulder and
back. “Why do they attack us? The victims of this explosion are poor people
who have been left to eat stones. Our bodies are already riddled with holes.” A few hours later, a third
bomb exploded in Sadr City, this one at a crowded sheep market. Three people
were killed - the two sisters and their father. In the southern Baghdad
neighborhood of Dora, a car bomb blew up near a food market, killing two
people and wounding six. In the northern Baghdad neighborhood of Baab
al-Muadham, a bomb outside a mosque killed one person attending a funeral and
wounded 13 others. And in the Karada
neighborhood, 12 people were wounded in a roadside bombing that was
apparently aimed at Abdul Latif Rasheed, the minister of water resources,
officials said. He was unharmed. On Tuesday night, two bombs
exploded at a popular market in the Husseiniya neighborhood, killing 5 people
and wounding 24, the police said. And in the Rahmania area, a homemade
explosive wounded five people, the police said. The attacks on the United
States military came three weeks after combat troops had withdrawn from
Baghdad and other cities, but the military is still allowed to move within
the cities with permission from Iraqi security forces. In one attack, in the Shaab
neighborhood about 8 a.m., the police said a homemade bomb exploded as an
American military patrol passed by. The United States military,
however, said a car packed with explosives drove toward the convoy, but
missed, striking pedestrians instead. Two civilians were wounded, the
military said. Witnesses said at least one of the American military vehicles
had been engulfed in flames. In the other attack, two men
trying to throw grenades at a convoy in the Abu Ghraib district were shot to
death by soldiers, the United States military said. Afterward, a firefight
broke out between troops and people firing at them from an alley, the
military said. One civilian was killed and four others were wounded in the
brief battle. West of the capital, in
Anbar Province, a car bomb was detonated near a restaurant north of Ramadi,
the provincial capital. Twenty people were wounded, the police said. The local police in Anbar
said they suspected detainees released this week from American prisons in
Falluja and Garma of carrying out the restaurant bombing. In a statement
issued Monday when the United States military released the 39 prisoners, the
military said it had “followed a detailed release process to ensure the
security of the people of Anbar and the safety of the detainees.” In the restive northern city
of Mosul, gunmen shot and killed a policeman on Tuesday, a day after five
police officers in the city were fatally shot, the Iraqi police said. Reporting was contributed by
Abeer Mohammed, Anwar J. Ali, Riyadh Mohammed and Amir A. al-Obeidi from
Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad, Ramadi and
Mosul. External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/world/middleeast/22iraq.html |