Up to 25 Killed In Bombing
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BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center Thursday in Fallujah, killing as many as 25 people, police said. The U.S. military said only one policeman was killed and eight were wounded.
The Fallujah suicide bomber killed at least 10 policemen in the attack, which occurred about 11 a.m., according to a police official in the city who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The rest of the dead were civilians, many of them in line seeking jobs as policemen. He said as many as 50 were wounded.
Fallujah General Hospital had received 15 bodies and 10 wounded, according to a doctor there, who would not allow the use of his name because he feared retribution. The physician said he believed other casualties were taken to the nearby Jordanian Hospital and private clinics.
A member of the Fallujah city council, who also asked for anonymity for fear of attack by insurgents, said there were at least 20 killed and 25 injured.
The coordination of information in Fallujah was particularly difficult because the mobile telephone system has been working only sporadically.
Maj. Jeff Pool of the Multi-National Force-West said the Anbar province governor's office and the provincial police put the total number of dead at one Iraqi policeman, with six police and two civilians wounded in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.
Police said the bomber detonated explosives in his vest at the third of four checkpoints, standing among recruits who were lining up to apply for jobs on the force. The center had only opened Saturday in a primary school in eastern Fallujah.
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17 + Killed 17 Wounded
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Elsewhere, two bombs hidden in plastic bags exploded in shops in central Baghdad, killing at least seven people and wounding 17, and dozens of suspected insurgents attacked a village north of the capital, killing five civilians and wounding 14, Iraqi authorities said.
In central Baghdad, a pair of bombs hidden in plastic bags exploded Tuesday afternoon within minutes in two shops selling CDs and cigarettes in Tayaran Square. Police said at least seven people were killed and 17 wounded.
The Shiite-controlled commercial area has been struck frequently by suicide attackers and roadside bombs.
In Diyala province, about 50 suspected insurgents attacked a small Shiite village early Tuesday, killing five people and wounding 14, Iraqi army and police officers said. Locals fought back for about an hour, and an undetermined number of insurgents were killed or wounded, the officers said.
At 9:15 a.m. Tuesday a bomb hidden in a minibus leaving a bus stop on a main road in Mahmoudiya exploded, wounding three Iraqi passengers, police said.
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Iraqi Mother's Day - Scores Killed and Wounded
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As we celebrate Mother's Day in the United States, let's once again, remember the Mothers in Iraq. Far too many Iraqi moms have lost their spouses, children, brothers, sisters, moms and dads over the past 4+ years. I would venture to say, that practically every Mom in Iraq, has known someone who has been killed or wounded since the US occupation.
In today's destruction:
BAGHDAD - A suicide truck bomber crashed into the offices of a Kurdish political party, killing at least 32 people, including the police chief, and wounding scores, officials said. It was the second suicide attack in Kurdish areas of the north in four days.
In Baghdad, a parked car exploded near the popular Sadriyah market, killing at least 17 people and wounding 46, police said. The area has been hit by several blasts usually blamed on suspected Sunni insurgents, including a car bombing on April 18 that killed 127 people.
The search for the missing Americans began after insurgents attacked a patrol of seven U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter before dawn Saturday near Mahmoudiya.
The suicide truck bombing in Makhmur, 30 miles south of Irbil, badly damaged the office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Makhmur is just south of the autonomous Kurdish-controlled areas, but it has a substantial Kurdish population.
The blast also killed the police chief and damaged the mayor's office, officials said.
Ziryan Othman, the health minister of the Kurdish regional government, said at least 32 people were killed and 115 were wounded, including the city's mayor.
Cars were charred and crushed by the blast, with some flipped over. The tires of one appeared to have been incinerated. Most of the small KDP building appeared to have been destroyed, reduced to a pile of bricks. Other buildings had walls blown out.
A group of people hurriedly pulled what appeared to be a dead body out of a demolished car.
Outside the hospital in Irbil, security guards closed the hospital to visitors and read a list containing the names of the wounded who had been admitted.
Hearing the names of his son and daughter, Qassim Amin, 61, a Kurd, thanked God that they had not been killed. Both are employees at the KDP party office, he said.
"Makhmur is an open, peaceful area, and al-Qaida is trying to destabilize it by causing fighting between Arabs and Kurds," Amin said.
AP Television News footage of the Baghdad bombing showed a crater in the ground filled with debris, splintered wood, metal and a tire. A white truck appeared to be crumpled by the blast.
With violence on the rise, Caldwell also announced that an additional 3,000 forces have been sent to Diyala province, scene of heavy fighting.
Last week, the top U.S. commander in the north, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, said the U.S. didn't have enough troops to restore order in Diyala but more had been promised.
"There is a recognition clearly that up in Diyala there has been an uptick in the violence," Caldwell said at a news conference in Baghdad.
On Sunday, Iraqi gunmen drove into the Diyala capital of Baqouba, pulled two handcuffed men out of the trunk and shot them to death _ one in view of a bustling market and the other near a movie theater, police and witnesses said.
"This is the destiny of traitors," the gunmen yelled as they shot their victims.
Three other civilians also were killed execution-style in a market in the city center, police said.
Have a nice mother's day.
16+ Killed By Car Bomber, 6 Bullet-riddled Bodies Found, 7+ Killed In Other Attacks
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BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber tore through a busy market in the Shiite holy city of Kufa on Tuesday morning, killing at least 16 people and wounding 70 in an attack sure to further enflame tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite populations.
In response, local authorities closed the entrances to Kufa and its sister holy city of Najaf _ strongholds of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia _ and imposed a vehicle ban around the revered shrines and mosques in the two towns, said Ahmed Duaible, a local government spokesman.
The suicide attack came a day after Iraq's Sunni vice president threatened to leave the Shiite-dominated government unless key unspecified amendments to the constitution were made by May 15 _ a move that would plunge Iraq into a political crisis.
The 550-pound car bomb at Kufa exploded about 10 a.m. in an area that also included a school and the mayor's office, police said. The 16 killed included women and children, said Salim Naima, spokesman of the Najaf health department.
"It was a huge explosion, its force threw me a few meters away from my wife," said Hussein Abid Matrod, a 38-year old taxi driver who was shopping with his wife and suffered shrapnel wounds to his back and legs. "I saw many people on the ground as smoke mixed with dust, and the smell of the gunpowder was everywhere."
Panicked people ran through the corridors searching for their relatives at the Furat al-Awsat hospital in nearby Najaf. Women in black abayas, traditional Islamic cloaks, pounded their chests and faces in grief.
"We are poor people looking for anything to secure our livelihood and we have nothing to do with politics. Why do they do this to us?" asked Firas Abdul-Karim, a 23-year-old day laborer who was wounded in the blast.
The revered Kufa mosque was about 400 yards from the blast. Millions of Shiite Muslim pilgrims visit the shrines at Kufa and Najaf, home to top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as well as radical anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The predominantly Shiite southern areas have seen a spike in violence and unrest, blamed in part on militants who have fled a security crackdown in Baghdad.
On April 28, a suicide car bomber killed 68 people in a crowded commercial area near two of Iraq's most sacred Shiite shrines in Karbala, 45 miles northwest of Kufa. That attack came two weeks after a car bombing killed 47 people killed and wounded 224 wounded in the same area.
Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, also has been hit by some of the deadliest bombings this year, including a double suicide attack that killed 120 Shiite pilgrims and another one that killed 73 people in a market. Kufa itself was struck by a Dec. 30 at the fish market that killed 31 people.
Also Tuesday, a roadside bomb went off next to a passing mini bus in the Shiite area of Zafaraniyah on the southeastern outskirts of Baghdad, killing three passengers and injuring five others, police said.
In Jalula, about 80 miles northeast of Baghdad, a suicide bomber attacked a police station Tuesday morning as the night-shift officers gathered in front of the building, preparing to go home, police said. The explosion killed two policemen and wounded 20 others, police said.
The bullet-riddled bodies of six men _ the apparent victims of sectarian violence _ were found with their hands and legs bound and bearing marks of torture in an abandoned field in the city of Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said.
Also in Baqouba, 12 gunmen trying to rob a bank were confronted by Iraqi police, sparking a gunbattle that killed one police officer and wounded another, police said. They said the attackers fled without any money.
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Bush Hits An All Time Low
68+ Killed or Found Dead Today
Good afternoon: UPDATE AFTERNOON ADDITION:
BAGHDAD - Suicide bombers killed 13 people in a pair of attacks Monday around the Sunni city of Ramadi in what local officials said was part of a power struggle between al-Qaida and tribes that have broken with the terror network.
In all, at least 68 people were killed or found dead nationwide Monday, police said. They included the bullet-riddled bodies of 30 men found in Baghdad _ the apparent victims of sectarian death squads.
All but two were found in west Baghdad, including 17 in the Amil neighborhood where Sunni politicians have complained of renewed attacks by Shiite militiamen, according to a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release those details.
The power struggle among the Sunnis, which surfaced last year, could prove decisive in the U.S. campaign to win over significant portions of the Sunni community, which has formed the bedrock of the insurgency.
The first of the Ramadi area attacks happened about noon in a market on the northwest outskirts of the city, killing eight people and wounding 13, said police Col. Tariq Youssef.
About 15 minutes later, police at a nearby checkpoint spotted a second car bomb and opened fire, but the driver was able to detonate the vehicle, Youssef said. Five people, including two policemen, were killed and 12 were wounded, Youssef said.
The attacks occurred in areas controlled by the Anbar Salvation Council, an alliance of Sunni tribes formed last year to drive al-Qaida from the area. Council officials blamed the attacks on al-Qaida.
"They committed this crime because we have identified their hideouts and we are chasing them," said Sheik Jabbar Naif al-Dulaimi.
In a Web statement Monday, an al-Qaida front organization, the Islamic State of Iraq, warned Sunnis against joining the government security forces _ a move supported by the Salvation Council.
"We tell every father, mother, wife or brother who does not want to lose a relative to advise them not to approach the apostates and we swear to God that we will use every possible means to strike at the infidels and the renegades," the group said.
The Islamic State also claimed responsibility Monday for attacks that killed 34 people over the weekend _ including six U.S. soldiers and a Russian embedded photojournalist who died in a roadside bombing in Baqouba.
The 34 also included the police chief of Samarra, Col. Jalil Nahi Hassoun, who was killed Sunday in an attack on police headquarters. He was buried Monday following a tearful procession by police in blue uniforms who escorted the flag-draped coffin as it was driven in the bed of a white pickup truck through the Sunni city.
At least five al-Qaida fighters were killed in the fighting in Samarra, a U.S. military official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details of the attack.
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At Least 95 Killed In Attacks Across Iraq
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Evening Update:
In all, at least 95 Iraqis were killed or found dead nationwide Sunday, police reported. They included 12 policemen in Samarra, among them the city's police chief, who died when Sunni insurgents launched a suicide car bombing and other attacks on police headquarters.
The market bombing occurred about noon in the Baiyaa district of western Baghdad, shattering vehicles, ripping roofs off nearby buildings and collapsing storefronts. Police said about 80 people were injured in addition to the 30 dead.
Following the horrific blast, blood pooled on the dirt streets. Hospital officials said two pickup trucks filled with body parts were brought to the morgue.
"I was waiting near a shop to lift some boxes, when I saw the owner of the shop collapse," said Sattar Hussein, 22, who works in the market. "I helped him inside the shop, but he was already dead. The next thing I felt was pain in my left shoulder and some people rushing me to the hospital."
Ali Hamid, 25, who owns a shop in the market, said he was selling soft drinks when the blast knocked him unconscious.
"The next thing I remember is some people putting me in a pickup with two dead bodies and rushing me to the hospital," he said. He called the attack "a terrorist act aimed at creating more sectarian tension and strife."
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed allegations by Sunni politicians that Shiite militias have resumed their campaign to expel Sunnis from Baiyaa.
Most of the shops in the market were believed owned by Shiites.
That raised speculation that the bombing was carried out by Sunni hard-liners in reprisal for the alleged expulsions, which were believed to have slowed across the capital since the start of the Baghdad security crackdown Feb. 14.
The attacks in Samarra, a Sunni city 60 miles north of Baghdad, began when a suicide car bomber struck the police headquarters. Following the blast, dozens of insurgents _ some wearing masks and wielding video cameras _ opened fire on the building and at least one police checkpoint, witnesses said.
(Reported earlier today):
BAGHDAD - A car bomb ripped through a wholesale food market in western Baghdad on Sunday, flattening cars and shops and killing at least 30 people in the deadliest of a wave of attacks across Iraq that left at least 54 people dead.
The attack against the market in Baghdad came amid an 11-week-old crackdown by U.S.-led forces intended to bring stability to the capital.
Another car bomb struck the police headquarters in Samarra, a volatile city in the Sunni heartland 60 miles north of Baghdad, killing four police _ including the police chief _ and a bystander, police said. A few minutes later, militants in the town attacked a police checkpoint near the Askariya shrine, killing another police officer, police said.
Dozens of al-Qaida linked insurgents _ some wearing masks and carrying video cameras and black banners _ also paraded through the streets, arriving in about 40 cars, in a show of force against the U.S.-Iraqi efforts to tame the Tigris River city.
It was the bombing that devastated the golden dome of the Shiite mosque on Feb. 22, 2006, that has been blamed for setting off a cycle of retaliatory sectarian violence that U.S.-Iraqi forces are struggling to curb.
The violence occurred after the lifting of a curfew that had been imposed after police in the area received threats warnings them to quit their jobs or face attacks. The curfew was imposed again after Sunday's attacks.
The police chief who was killed, Col. Jalil Nahi Hassoun, assumed the helm of the force about a year ago. He worked closely with the U.S. military but was disliked by many Samarrans who alleged his forces conducted random arrests and held people without charge for prolonged periods.
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40 Killed or Found Dead Across Iraq
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A suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd at an Iraqi army recruiting center in Abu Ghraib, a town west of Baghdad, killing five soldiers and 10 recruits, police said. Witnesses said guards spotted the bomber but he was able to detonate his explosives vest. Iraqi security forces are frequently targeted by Sunni insurgents who accuse them of collaborating with U.S.-led efforts to stabilize the country.
Residents and police in a Shiite area in eastern Baghdad said U.S. helicopters early Saturday fired on three houses, killing six men and wounding a woman and five children. The U.S. military said a helicopter supporting ground operations in the area came under fire but did not shoot back.
AP Television News footage showed a shattered wall of one house and a satellite dish punctured by what appeared to be artillery holes. Dozens of people marched in a funeral procession for four of those killed, bearing their bodies in wooden coffins draped with Iraqi flags.
The bullet-riddled bodies of five police officers, dressed in civilian clothes, were discovered late Friday outside the city of Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, police said.
T
heir identity documents showed they were from the turbulent city of Ramadi, police said, and their killing underscored the danger facing Iraqi police in the area.
In all, at least 40 people were killed or found dead in scattered violence. Those included a policeman killed in a suicide car bomb attack and a woman who died in a mortar attack in Baghdad, as well as three people killed in clashes between Shiite and Sunni militants north of the capital.
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12 Killed Across Iraq
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US Troops continue to "Surge" into Baghdad. 4,000 more have just arrived:
BAGHDAD - Nearly 4,000 American soldiers have arrived in the capital to strengthen the 12-week crackdown aimed at quelling sectarian violence, the U.S. military said Wednesday, as bombings and shootings killed 12 people across the country.
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