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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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October 6th,
2009 - Truck Bomb Kills 9 in Western Iraq |
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Truck Bomb Kills 9 in
Western Iraq By Anthony Shadid Washington Post October 6, 2009 Baghdad, Oct. 6 - A pickup
truck piled with explosives blew up in front of a restaurant frequented by
Iraqi police near Fallujah on Tuesday, killing nine people and wounding
dozens more in the second attack in as many days in western Iraq. After the bombing, a curfew
was imposed on Amiriyah, about 10 miles south of Fallujah, a town once
synonymous with Iraq's insurgency that has largely quieted in past years.
Residents and police, though, have warned that violence seems to be worsening
lately in Fallujah and other towns along the Euphrates River that stretch
west of Baghdad. "Security forces are
still looking for victims under the rubble," said Shaker al-Issawi, who
serves as the head of the municipal council in Amiriyah, adding that at least
31 people were wounded. Witnesses said the explosion
was so powerful that corpses were hurled onto the roofs of neighboring
buildings. The victims appeared to be civilians, police and members of Sons
of Iraq, a U.S.-backed militia that fought the insurgency in 2007 and 2008. Unlike previous attacks,
Tuesday's blast was not the work of a suicide bomber. A witness, 27-year-old
Mohammed al-Issawi, who sells tea on the street, said the assailant parked
the blue truck and left about 15 minutes before the explosion. Some residents
blamed lax security at checkpoints for letting the truck into the town. The attack came a day after
a man with explosives strapped to his body blew himself up at a funeral
service in the town of Haditha, further west along the Euphrates. At least
six people were killed and 15 injured. The funeral was held for the mother of
a well-known figure in the town who was once an official in the government of
President Saddam Hussein. Among those attending were police and members of
the Sons of Iraq. As residents ferried the
dead and wounded to the hospital, mosques broadcast appeals over their
loudspeakers for residents to donate blood. A vast desert bisected by
the Euphrates, Anbar province was once the cradle of the insurgency. But
after tribes and the Sons of Iraq turned against the insurgents in 2006, the
region gradually came under the control of the provincial government and the
U.S. military. American soldiers have since withdrawn from all but a handful
of bases. But in past months, violence
has increased. Insurgents have proven they remain a presence in Anbar, with
the logistics and men to carry out attacks on tribal figures, U.S.-backed
militiamen, security forces and provincial officials. Some residents have
also blamed political infighting ahead of January's election, as factions and
figures turn to violence to settle disputes that many expect to escalate. Special correspondent Othman
al-Mukhtar in Fallujah contributed to this report. © 2009 The Washington Post
Company External link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/06/AR2009100601820.html |