Winks Blog

26 Killed 22 Injured In Baghdad Cafe Bombing

Good Evening,

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A martyr bomber detonated explosives Sunday inside a cafe packed with Shiites in northern Iraq, killing 26 people and injuring 22, an Iraqi general said. Gunmen seized a top Oil Ministry official, the second major kidnapping in as many days.

The suicide attack occurred about 8:30 p.m. in the outdoor market in Tuz Khormato, a mostly Turkomen city 130 miles north of Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammed Amin said.

The powerful blast collapsed the ceiling of the one-story cafe, burying many of the victims, witnesses said. Hours afterward, rescuers were still sifting through the debris looking for the dead or injured. Authorities used mosque loudspeakers to appeal for blood donations.

One of Iraq's main ethnic groups, Turkomen follow both the Sunni and Shiite traditions of Islam. Amin said Shiites favored the cafe because it was near a Shiite mosque. But friction exists among Iraq's Turkomen and Kurdish populations, and the motive for the attack was unclear.

In Baghdad, gunmen seized Adel Kazzaz, director of the North Oil Co., shortly after he left the Oil Ministry in eastern Baghdad, ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said. They beat his bodyguards and whisked him away, Jihad said.

The government-owned North Oil Co. runs Iraq's oil fields around the northern city of Kirkuk, and Kazzaz was in the capital for a meeting with ministry officials.

The northern fields have been plagued for years by sabotage attacks on pipelines and other infrastructure. Oil exports were restored last month after a long delay but halted again last week and not expected to resume soon.

The high-profile kidnapping came one day after gunmen abducted the head of Iraq's National Olympic Committee and 30 other people. Six were set free Sunday in eastern Baghdad, left blindfolded and unharmed, Iraq's Sport Journalist Union said.

There was no word on the other hostages, including the Olympic National Committee chairman, Ahmed al-Hijiya.

Also Sunday:

_ Gunmen swooped down on the detention wing of the main hospital in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, and freed 13 prisoners under treatment there, police said. Four policemen were killed in the assault and three prisoners were later recaptured.

Baqouba is the capital of Diyala province, where Sunni-Shiite tensions run high and where Sunni insurgents are active. No details were given about the prisoners.

_ In Baghdad, a bomb hidden in a trash bag exploded in the Karradah district, killing four people and wounding 21 others, police said. One person was killed and two were wounded when a bomb exploded near a police patrol in north Baghdad.

_ Two people were killed and five were wounded in a gunbattle between police and militants in another north Baghdad neighborhood, police said.

_ A suicide bomber attacked a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing three civilians and wounding six others, police said.

_ Gunmen opened fire on a vehicle carrying three guards of the Baghdad mobile telephone company, killing one, according to police.

_ In the northern city of Kirkuk, two barbers were killed in a drive-by shooting, police said. Drive-by shootings killed one person in Mosul and another in Muqdadiyah, northeast of the capital.

Have a nice evening.

posted by Wink @ 9:52 PM