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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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October 18th,
2009 - Bomb Kills 5 Near Baghdad Cafe, Say Police |
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Bomb Kills 5 Near
Baghdad Cafe, Say Police By Barbara Surk Associated Press October 18, 2009 Baghdad - A bomb attached to
a motorcycle exploded on Sunday near a popular cafe in a largely Sunni
district of Baghdad killing five people, Iraqi police said. The blast in Baghdad's
Azamiyah district also injured 16 civilians, an officer at the al-Risafa
police station said. Officials at two hospitals that received the wounded
said most of the injured were young men. The policeman and hospital
officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to
talk to the media. Baghdad's northern Azamiyah
district was a Sunni stronghold during sectarian violence in the Iraqi
capital in 2006 and 2007. But as in other parts of the city, violence has
eased considerably since then and residents have resumed going to sidewalks
cafes and dining in riverside restaurants. Attacks have not halted
entirely, however, and militants still strike mosques, markets and symbols of
state authority with deadly force. In August, two truck bombs
were detonated at ministry buildings in Baghdad, killing more than 100 people
and wounding hundreds. The attacks sharply undermined Iraqis' confidence into
the prime minister's Nouri al-Maliki's security policy ahead of parliamentary
elections in January. The summer's deadly bombings
in the capital also heightened fears about the abilities of Iraqi security
forces to protect the people in the aftermath of U.S. troops' pull out from
the country's urban centers, with plans to fully withdraw from Iraq by the
end of 2011. Scattered violence has
continued around the country. On Saturday, a suicide
bomber driving a dynamite-laden truck destroyed a key bridge near the city of
Ramadi, and an attack on an Iraqi army convoy just outside of the city of
Fallujah killed four Iraqi soldiers. The recent violence is sure
to be on the agenda when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki meets with
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden next week. Al-Maliki's
trip to the United States was designed to coincide with an investor
conference in Washington D.C. that aims to drum up interest in Iraq's still
fragile economy. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hwK_CSpBxsNuVUEaDuOwmSSCiqGwD9BDMLS84 |