Winks Blog

29+ Killed In Baquoba Blast

Good afternoon,

BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber rode his bicycle into a crowd of police recruits Monday in Baqouba, killing at least 29 people in the deadliest in a series of blasts that rocked the capital and towns to the north.
Suicide bombings, normally viewed as the work of al-Qaeda radicals, have taken a mighty toll among police and army recruits and are carried out to discourage Iraqi men from joining the country's struggling security forces. At least 19 people were wounded in the Monday attack.

Virtually all the dead and wounded Monday were felled by ball-bearings packed in the suicide bomber's explosive vest, police and hospital officials said.

Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari, meanwhile, said a group of Diyala province tribal sheiks had been released by their captors one day after they were waylaid.

The ten men — seven Shiites and three Sunnis — were kidnapped as they drove out of Baghdad after meeting with the Shiite-dominated government's adviser for tribal affairs. They had discussed how to coordinate efforts against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Police found the bullet-riddled body of one of the Sunni sheiks, Mishaan Hilan, about 50 yards away from where the ambush took place, according to an officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. The Sheik was identified through the mobile phone found on his body.

Al-Askari refused to give further details on the men's release.

The U.S. military issued a statement Monday accusing rogue Shiite militia leader Arkan Hasnawi, a former brigade commander in the Mahdi Army militia, for the kidnapping.

The breakaway Shiite fighters have battled al-Qaeda in Iraq for control in Diyala province since the terrorist organization moved into the region and sought to make it a headquarters. Baqouba, the provincial capital, is 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Al-Qaeda was largely driven out of its stronghold in Iraq's westernmost province, Anbar, after Sunni tribes rose up against the organization's brutal tactics and austere version of Islam. The U.S. military, seeking to build on success in Anbar, have assiduously courted both Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders in across Diyala province and Baqouba, hoping for a similar outcome.

The ten sheiks were snatched in Baghdad's northern Shaab district, a predominantly Shiite enclave.

A member of the Shiite Ambagyah tribe based east of Baqouba said the seven Shiites were from that tribal organization. Before the sheiks' release, the tribal spokesman said the kidnappers had made contact and offered to release the Shiites.

The spokesman said the captive sheiks refused to leave without their two remaining Sunni colleagues because they feared it "would create more violence and revenge operations."

The tribal spokesman declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Three months ago, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army fighters to lay down their arms for as long as six months, but thousands of followers dissatisfied with being taken out of the fight have broken off to form their own groups. The U.S. military says the so-called rogue fighters are funded and armed by Iran to foment violence. Iran denies the allegations.

The military said Hasnawi's actions demonstrated that he has violated the cease-fire order and "joined forces with Iranian-supported special groups that are rejecting Muqtada al-Sadr's direction to embrace fellow Iraqis."

The kidnapping and the Baqouba bombing occurred during the first two days of Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling's command in the volatile region north of the capital. His 1st Armored Division took over Sunday from the 25th Infantry Division under the command of Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon

One of the police recruits wounded in the suicide bombing, 25-year-old Shiite Saadulden Mohammed, said he had only decided to join the force after his father was killed in sectarian violence and he was left as the large family's sole provider.

He cried as he spoke to an Associated Press reporter as he received a blood transfusion in a Baqouba hospital. He was wounded in the back and legs.

"This was an al-Qaeda operation, and they were after both Shiites and Sunnis. I was standing at the end of the platoon, suddenly I saw explosion and fire. If I would had been killed if I was standing with my Sunni friend. He died. We had breakfast together today," Mohammed said.

Akram Salman, a 22-year-old Sunni, said he, too, was among the approximately 60 recruits waiting outside the police station for a day of training.

Salman declared the bombing an inside job because the suicide attacker penetrated heavy security surrounding the police camp without being searched.

He said police failed to stop the bomber when he changed course suddenly from the main road toward the recruits.

"The police are infiltrated. Many people join the police but they have affiliations with al-Qaeda. These infiltrators made it easy for the bomber to attack us," he said. "There are two main checkpoints on the main road leading to the camp, it would be impossible for a man on a bicycle to pass without being properly searched."

Mohammed al-Kirrawi, a doctor at the Baqouba general hospital, said most of the victims were struck by ball-bearings and the hospital lacked equipment to save many of the wounded.

Hertling, the new Multi-Division-North commander acknowledged violence remained high in the area but expressed confidence that the military has al-Qaeda on the run.

"The levels are still high," he said at a hand-over ceremony Sunday. "But while they're still high ... they have been decreasing significantly."

"We are in, I believe, a pursuit operation with al-Qaeda," he said. "They are targeting the concerned local citizens, the police stations and some of the gathering places of sheiks ... specifically to try and deter the Iraqi people from moving forward."

Three large bombs exploded in Baghdad but caused no fatalities. About a dozen people were wounded.

A bomb also hit in Siniyah, a town west of Beiji, an oil hub 155 miles north of Baghdad.

Police said the explosive apparently targeted on a police patrol but missed. Four members of one family were killed as they headed to a market for the day's food supplies. Thirteen people were wounded.

In southern Iraq, meanwhile, the U.S. military turned over security responsibilities to Iraqi authorities in the mainly Shiite Karbala province, the eighth of the nation's 18 provinces to revert to Iraqi control.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Basra, the southernmost province, would be transferred to the Iraqis in mid-December. British-led forces overseeing the area already have begun drawing down and pulled back from the center Basra city to the airport on the outskirts.

"This is the proof of the strong will and resolve of the good citizens of this nation," al-Maliki said at the handover ceremony in Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad. "The reconstruction of Iraq does not hinge on security alone, but security is the key to everything."

Have a nice day.

posted by Wink @ 5:03 PM