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Attacks
Rage in Iraq, Bush Hails “Progress”
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Policemen take cover as a bomb explodes in Baghdad. (Reuters)
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BAGHDAD,
April 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – At least 19
people were killed and over 70 wounded in a string of at least nine
car bomb attacks in and around Baghdad Friday, April 29, according to
an interior ministry official.
The
attack came one day after the announcement of an incomplete Iraqi
government, and after US President George W. Bush said American-led
forces were making “really good progress” in Iraq but refused to
set a timeline for the end of the occupation of the oil-rich country.
Thirteen
people died, including seven soldiers and two policemen, and 50 were
wounded, including 13 soldiers and two policemen, in four apparently
coordinated car bomb attacks in two districts of the capital at about
8:00 am (0400 GMT), the interior ministry official told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Five
others, including one policeman and two interior ministry commandos,
and 14, mostly security forces, were wounded when three more car bombs
exploded in Madain, a town some 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the
capital that was swept only 10 days ago by the Iraqi army in search of
fighters.
An
Iraqi soldier was killed and three injured by an eighth car bomb,
which exploded next to an army convoy in an eastern district of the
capital at around 10:30 am (0630 GMT), security officials told AFP.
And
four policemen were injured an hour later when they approached a
suspicious car, 300 yards (meters) away from the scene of the attack
on the army convoy.
The
latest surge of attacks started around 7:30 when a bomb exploded just
after a US convoy had driven by in the southern Dura district. There
were no reported casualties.
A
10-year-old girl was wounded shortly afterwards when a mortar shell
hit her home in the southern Dura district.
Dozens
of explosions then rocked the city around 8:00 am, as car bombs
targeted Iraqi police and army in the northern district of Adhamiyah
and fighters fired mortar shells into the area adding to the chaos.
Two
more cars blew up near police targets in the eastern district of
Saligh.
Also
Friday, a bomb disposal expert was killed and a civilian injured by an
explosion in the Kurdish city of Arbil in northern Iraq, local police
chief Fahrad Karim told AFP.
And
in the southern town of Basra, one border guard was killed and two
injured by a bomb, hospital sources said.
The
US military, meanwhile, said an American soldier was killed and five
others were wounded in a bomb explosion early Thursday, April 28, near
ousted president Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in northern Iraq.
Bush
“Happy”
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“I believe we are making good progress in Iraq,” Bush said. (Reuters)
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The
attacks came after Iraq’s parliament approved a partial Cabinet of
ministers, ending three months of political deadlock that crippled
efforts to form a new government since the January elections in the
war-torn country.
Sunni
Arab leaders expressed their disappointment over the partial line-up
and warned a fresh political crisis loomed if their demands for better
representation were not met.
The
announcement helped Bush made upbeat comments in a prime-time news
conference that US-led forces were making “really good progress”
in Iraq, and that Iraqi security forces were performing “much
better” but again refused to speculate on a timetable for the
withdrawal of American troops.
“I
believe we are making good progress in Iraq because the Iraqi people
are beginning to see the benefits of a free society,” the president
told reporters at the White House.
“The
Iraqi military is being trained by our military, and they’re
performing much better than the past,” Bush said.
“The
more secure Iraq becomes, as a result of the hard work of Iraqi
security forces, the more confident the people will have in the
process and the more isolated the terrorist will become,” Bush said.
But
the comments and the announcement of the new government were dampened
by the Friday attacks.
The
American leader has to acknowledge that his forces were still facing a
stubborn resistance run by what he termed as “hard-nosed killers.”
Bush’s
comments came two days after General Richard Myers, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, conceded that the pace of attacks were as
strong as a year ago even if US forces were winning the war.
Bush
would not be drawn into saying when he might be able to start pulling
out US troops, whose number he said had been cut back from 160,000
deployed during the landmark January 30 elections to 139,000.
“I
don't think it is wise for me to set out a timetable. All that will do
is cause an enemy to adjust. My answer is as soon as possible. And
‘as soon as possible’ depends upon the Iraqis being able to fight
and do the job.”
US
forces invaded Iraq in March 2003 on claims of finding weapons of mass
destruction. But a violent series of attacks have taken hold that has
killed American troops and Iraqi civilians, as none of these banned
materials were found since.
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