Winks Blog

14+ Killed, 52+ Wounded In String Of Explosions

A string of explosions in Baghdad and north of the capital, meanwhile, killed at least 14 Iraqis and wounded 52.

Many of Monday's attacks targeted the country's Shiite-led security forces, accused by Sunni Arabs of repeated abuses against them under the cover of fighting the deadly Sunni-driven insurgency. The government denies the accusations.

The bloodiest attack happened in Baqouba, where a car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded near a market, killing six people and injuring 23, including four patrolmen, police said. Piles of charred, twisted wreckage and pools of blood marked the site.

At Baqouba Hospital, relatives of the dead threw their hands in the air and wailed in despair. The mixed Sunni-Shiite city about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad has been at the forefront of a surge of sectarian violence unleashed by the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in the central city of Samarra.

Bombs and mortar fire also rocked the capital, ending a relative lull over the weekend.

A suicide car bomber hit an Interior Ministry convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing two members of the security force and injuring three, police said

Another bomb exploded as a police patrol was driving through a northern Baghdad neighborhood, killing one officer and a civilian bystander, Interior Ministry official Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said. Three others were injured in the blast, including a patrol member, he said.

Two more policemen were killed when a car bomb exploded in a residential street, said al-Mohammedawi. Three people, including one policeman, were injured in the blast, which blew out windows of nearby cars and homes.

Another car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in downtown, injuring seven people, police said. The wounded included four policemen and three civilian bystanders.

Two bombs went off in Baghdad's notorious southern Dora neighborhood. One targeted an Interior Ministry patrol, wounding one commando, police said. A second went off as a U.S. patrol was passing, injuring five policemen, who were guarding a bank, and two civilians, al-Mohammedawi said. There were no immediate reports of U.S. casualties.

An earlier explosion near the Shiite Buratha mosque in northern Baghdad caused no casualties, police said.

Police found at least four more bodies that were shot in the head and dumped in parts of Baghdad. And three Shiite Turkmen were killed in a drive-by-shooting near Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

In Mahmoudiya, about 18 miles south of Baghdad, a car bomb hit a police patrol, killing a woman and injuring three other people, including two patrolmen, said police Cap. Rashid al-Samarie.

In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, a roadside bomb missed a passing U.S. convoy, killing an Iraqi civilian and injuring two others instead, police and hospital officials said.

And three Shiite Turkmen were killed in a drive-by-shooting near Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, police said.

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 7:51 AM