|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Suicide bombers attack Iraqi ex-policemen, kill 27
HILLA, Iraq (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers strapped with explosives blew themselves up in a crowd of protesting former policemen south of Baghdad on Monday, killing 27 in one of the deadliest attacks in a month of escalating violence. The blasts in the mostly Shi'ite town of Hilla and the brief detention of a Sunni Arab political leader by U.S. forces in Baghdad put fresh strain on ties between Iraq's Muslim sects. Al Qaeda's network in Iraq claimed responsibility for the bombings in separate statements posted on the Internet. Police said the bombers mingled with former police commandos who were demonstrating outside a government office because their unit had been disbanded. The first bomber detonated his explosives in the middle of the crowd. As survivors scattered, the other bomber ran with them and blew himself up nearby. "You just can't count the dead because the bodies were torn apart," said one Iraqi man surveyeing the scene. "May God punish those who did this." More than 100 people were wounded, police said. Body parts lay in pools of blood on the street beside discarded sandals and shoes. Workers carried shredded bodies on stretchers and sheets and loaded them onto the back of pick-up trucks. Insurgents have stepped up suicide attacks and ambushes over the past month, killing more than 700 Iraqis since a new Shi'ite-led cabinet was announced on April 28. Seventy U.S. troops have been killed in May, making it the deadliest month for the U.S. military since January when insurgents tried to derail the Jan. 30 elections. In an effort to restore public confidence sapped by relentless violence and the long delay in forming a cabinet after the elections, the government has launched the biggest Iraqi military operation since the fall of Saddam Hussein to hunt for foreign Arab fighters and Iraqi insurgents in Baghdad. Officials say 40,000 Iraqi troops will seal off routes into the capital and search the city district by district under Operation Lightning, which began on Sunday. It was not clear where such a large force will be drawn from. The al Qaeda network in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said it had launched an offensive in response to the operation. Insurgents fought Iraqi police in western Baghdad on Sunday and detonated at least three suicide car bombs in the capital. Across the country, insurgent attacks killed at least 25 Iraqis and a British soldier on Sunday. SECTARIAN TENSION The escalating violence in Iraq has worsened sectarian tensions. Political leaders have called for calm, telling Iraqis not to allow insurgents to push the country toward civil war. There are also fears of ethnic tensions between Kurds and Arabs. In Kirkuk, a Kurdish general was shot dead overnight, the latest official to be assassinated in the Arab-Kurd city. The militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility. Washington has been encouraging the Shi'ite and Kurdish blocs that emerged strongest from the January polls to involve more Sunni Arabs in the drafting of a permanent constitution, the next step on Iraq's path to democracy. Sunni Arabs dominated Iraq during Saddam's rule but won only 17 seats in Iraq's 275-member parliament because many Sunni groups boycotted the elections and violence in Sunni Arab areas meant turnout there was extremely low. The government, trying to defuse sectarian tension and undermine an insurgency dominated by Sunni Arab fighters, gave several cabinet posts to Sunnis and says it is examining ways to give them a greater role in drafting the constitution. But in a move that inflamed Sunni Arab anger, U.S. troops arrested Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, the leader of an influential Sunni party, on Monday, the party said. He was later released. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shi'ite, has ordered an investigation into Abdul-Hamid's detention, his spokesman said. "We believe there are parties that are benefiting from such raids on prominent Sunni leaders who have been supporting the political process and democracy in Iraq," he said. "This is the fourth time that a Sunni leader has been arrested." The Iraqi Islamic Party withdrew from the January elections, saying violence in Sunni areas meant the polls would not be fair. But it has signaled it is ready to take a greater part in Iraqi politics and the writing of a constitution. "The U.S. administration claims it is interested in drawing Sunnis into the political process but it seems that their way of doing so is by raids, arrests and violating human rights," the party said in a statement. In western Anbar province, a stronghold of the insurgency, U.S. troops raided two towns on the Euphrates river and killed several foreign fighters, the American military said. "Multiple sources of intelligence indicated that elements of the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi terrorist network were operating in the area, including key lieutenants, suicide bombers, and a contingent of foreign fighters," a military statement said. "Operations against suspected foreign fighter strongholds resulted in killing
over a dozen terrorists and foreign fighters. Specifically the bodies of three
Saudis and one Moroccan have been identified and others are being sought within
the destroyed buildings." ( |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
