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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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August 24th,
2009 - Ten Killed in Southern Iraq Bus Bombings |
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Ten Killed in Southern Iraq Bus
Bombings By Ali al-Alaak Agence France Presse August 24, 2009 Kut, Iraq - Four women and
two children were among 10 people killed when bombs exploded on two buses
near the southern Iraqi city of Kut on Monday, underscoring the nation's
volatile security situation. The afternoon blasts struck
within half an hour of each other, and also left 19 people wounded, police
and hospital officials told AFP. "Sticky bombs were
attached to two buses and 10 people were killed," said police lieutenant
Mohammed Fadhil in Kut. "Nineteen people were wounded." The first bomb exploded at
around 2.30pm (1130 GMT) 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Kut, causing eight
deaths and leaving eight wounded, he said. The second blast occurred
half an hour later 40 kilometres north of the southern city, the regional
capital of Wasit province, leading to two deaths and 11 wounded, Fadhil said. A mortuary official at Zahra
hospital in Kut, Maamun Thajil, said four women and two children were among
the dead and six women were also wounded. Maher Ghanem Morad, chief of
Wasit health authority, confirmed that the hospital had received 10 bodies
and was treating 19 wounded. Kut is 175 kilometres (110
miles) southeast of Baghdad, close to the border with Iran. The latest attacks come amid
mounting concern about Iraq's security situation and less than a week after
two massive truck bombings left at least 95 people dead and about 600 wounded
in Baghdad. Wednesday's attacks at the
finance and foreign ministries marked the worst day of violence in Iraq for
18 months and prompted the arrests of 11 top security officials on suspicion
of collusion with insurgents. On Sunday, Iraqi officials
showed a video of a Saddam Hussein loyalist confessing to orchestrating the
finance ministry bombing. The footage showed former
police chief Wissam Ali Kadhem Ibrahim admit to plotting the attack.
Major-General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Iraqi army's Baghdad operations,
told reporters Ibrahim was the main person responsible. The second truck bombing on
Wednesday came just minutes after the first and targeted the foreign
ministry. Government officials on
Sunday confirmed they had stopped dismantling blast-proof concrete security
walls in the capital following last week's devastating attacks, confirming
high level concern about recent violence. The decision is a step back
from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's plan to remove the blast walls to show
that the security situation was improving. Maliki said on Saturday that
Iraq had taken "decisive measures to tackle the weak points"
exposed by Wednesday's bombings. But Foreign Minister Hoshyar
Zebari went further, saying the country would see more deadly attacks in the
coming months because some security force members were colluding with
insurgents and the violence was getting worse. He also made the first
official admission that Wednesday's truck bombings signalled security gains
made in the past year have recently unravelled, and called for a reappraisal
of Iraq's entire security apparatus, saying it was not obtaining sufficient
intelligence to counter the insurgent threat. Copyright © 2009 AFP. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hZ1-dRK2Umr7MoT3fV_PYdyIBUbQ |