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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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August 10th,
2009 - Iraq Bomb Attacks Kill 47 |
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By Mujahid Mohammed Agence France Presse August 10, 2009 Khaznah, Iraq - Two truck
bombs targeting a tiny sect in a village in northern Iraq and a spate of
bloody bombings in Baghdad killed at least 47 people on Monday and wounded
more than 250, officials said. In the deadliest single
attack, two booby-trapped lorries exploded before dawn in the village of
Khaznah, east of the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul, leaving 28 people
dead and 155 wounded. The massive blasts levelled
35 houses and gouged deep craters into the ground of the prosperous village
of 3,000, home to members of the small Shabak community, a sect of Kurdish
origin. Falah Ridha, a 23-year-old
nurse wounded in the attack, said he was the only survivor of 12 people in
his family home. "Eleven people in my
family were killed when their house collapsed. All of them woke up after the
first bomb, but the second bomb was very close to my house, it was like an
earthquake," he said. "No one else escaped,
just me." Mohammed Kadhem, 37, told AFP:
"I was sleeping on the roof and I woke up as if there was an earthquake.
After that I saw a plume of smoke and dust spreading everywhere. "A minute later another
bomb went off, knocking me off the roof onto the ground. I was struck
unconscious by shrapnel and stones," he said. Another local resident,
Assaad Salem, said: "I had just finished my prayers and was trying to
sleep when the first bomb went off and destroyed everything in my house, it
was like a dust storm. "Then the other bomb
went off and I thought this is doomsday, this is the end of all life." Mosul has been the frequent
target of attacks despite a marked decline in violence elsewhere in the
country, and US commanders describe it as the last urban bastion of Al-Qaeda
loyalists in Iraq. The country's second city
with a population of about 1.6 million, Mosul is mainly Sunni -- both Arab
and Kurdish -- but it also has significant Christian and Shiite Turkmen
minorities. In Baghdad, two bombs went
off as day labourers were gathering in the early morning looking for jobs,
police and the interior ministry said. The first bomb, hidden
inside a bag of cement, exploded at Hay al-Amel in the west of the capital,
killing seven people and injuring 46. The second attack, a car
bomb in Shurta Arbaa in the north of the city, killed nine people and wounded
36 others. A third bombing at a market
in the southern suburb of Saidiyah killed three people and wounded 14. Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki at a meeting with army commanders praised efforts in fighting
insurgents but said the struggle was ongoing. "The pursuit is still
on and, God willing, we will remove all those corrupted people who willingly
and in cold blood kill Iraqis," he said. On Friday, a powerful car
bomb blast killed at least 37 Shiite Muslims near a mosque in Mosul in a wave
of attacks that also killed 10 people in Baghdad, threatening to plunge the
country into a new round of sectarian conflict. Despite a reduction in violence
in recent months, attacks against security forces and civilians remain common
in Baghdad, Mosul and in the ethnically divided northern oil-rich city of
Kirkuk. The number of violent deaths
fell by a third last month to 275 from 437 in June, following the pullout of
US forces from urban areas. The figure for May was 155,
the lowest of any month since the US-led 2003 invasion. The Shabak community numbers
about 30,000 people living in 35 villages in the province of Nineveh, and
many want to become part of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. They speak a distinct
language and largely follow a faith that is a blend of Shiite Islam and local
beliefs. The Shabak community was
persecuted under ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and after the invasion
they were targeted on a number of occasions by Al-Qaeda. Copyright © 2009 AFP. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hAP8YlEWfFi_h4VFSwSywZZJVYZQ |