|
Blast Kills 16 Iraqis, Another Official Assassinated
 |
|
An Iraqi security officer surveys the damaged car of Qubba who was killed Saturday
|
BAGHDAD,
June (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Around 16 Iraqis were
killed on Sunday, June 13, in a new car bombing in the capital Baghdad
while a senior education ministry official was assassinated.
At
least six policemen where among 16 people killed when a bomber blew his
vehicle near an Iraqi military college in southeast Baghdad, reported
the Doha-based Aljazeera broadcaster.
A
U.S. military spokeswoman put the initial death toll at 12, including
four policemen.
"Initial
reports indicate that 12 Iraqis were killed, including four police
officers, and 13 Iraqis wounded, including one police officer, when a
suspected car bomb detonated near an Iraqi police patrol in southeast
Baghdad," she told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Abdul
Razzak Kadhem, senior police officer at the scene of the blast, told
Reuters that a suspicious vehicle was driving towards the college
where many U.S. soldiers are also based.
Two
police cars tried to intercept the vehicle but it exploded, destroying
one police car and badly damaging the other.
Two
charred bodies could be seen in the blackened wreckage of the
destroyed police car, Reuters added.
Several
civilian vehicles were also damaged. Blood could be seen on the
driver's seat of a white pick-up truck.
The
U.S.-led occupation’s headquarters in Baghdad also came early under
a rocket attack Sunday, Reuters said.
A
U.S. occupation spokeswoman said the attack caused no casualties in
the heavily fortified U.S. compound inside what is known as the
"Green Zone", which often comes under mortar and rocket
attack from Iraqi resistance fighters.
More
Assassinations
Also
on Sunday, Kamal Al-Jarrah, director-general for cultural relations in
Iraq’s interim education ministry, was fatally wounded by gunmen as
he left his house in western Baghdad.
He
died later in the city's Yarmuk Hospital, Abdul Khaliq al-Amiri,
secretary to the education minister, told Reuters.
Jarrah's
wife, who was with him, was unhurt in the attack, he added.
Jarrah,
63, was mainly responsible for dealing with exchange programs and
relations with foreign countries and UNESCO.
He
had worked in the education field for 40 years, Amiri added.
On
Saturday, June 12, gunmen killed
Bassam Kubba, the foreign ministry's undersecretary for multinational
affairs and international organizations.
He
was shot as he drove to work from his home in Baghdad's Adhamiya
district and breathed his last after being rushed to hospital.
It
was the first assassination of a top official since the new caretaker
government was installed
on June 1.
Shiite
politician Ezzedine Salim, who was rotating president last month of
the now dissolved Governing Council, was
killed in a bombing on May 17.
Salim
was the second member of the council to be killed since it started
operations.
|
