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Bombings Kill 71 Iraqis, Wound Scores
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Iraqi
policeman views cars destroyed by suicide bombing in Tirkit.
(Reuters)
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BAGHDAD,
May 11, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A series of car
bomb attacks rocked Iraq Wednesday, May 11, killing at least 71
people, in one of the bloodiest blitz of attacks in the war-torn
country since the formation of the new Iraqi government of Ibrahim
Jaafari.
In
the deadliest blast Wednesday, a suicide bomber wearing a belt of
explosives blew himself up in a line of people outside a police and
army recruitment center in the northern Iraqi town of Hawija, killing
at least 30 people and wounding 35 others, police and hospital sources
told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Many
of the dead could not immediately be identified, but were believed to
be young men from outlying villages who had come to join the new Iraqi
army, local hospital doctor Abdallah Yussef told AFP.
In
the northern city of Tikrit, a car bomber blew up his vehicle among a
crowd of workers, killing at least 28 people and injuring 60 others,
Reuters said.
“What
I saw was a tragedy,” said Ibrahim Mohammed, a migrant worker from
the town of Kut who witnessed the blast.
“Some
people had their heads torn off by the explosion, some were burned,
some were ripped to pieces.”
Forty-six
people, mostly police recruits were killed in a similar attack in the
northern Kurdish city of Arbil May 4.
Following
the blast, a curfew was briefly slapped on the city, and mosques
blared out messages calling on residents of the small Sunni town 180
kilometers (110 miles) north of Baghdad to donate blood for the
wounded.
US
Blamed
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US
forces failed to bring occupied Iraq under control. (Reuters)
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Other
three car bombs exploded in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. One targeted a
police station in the southern district of Dura, leaving three people
killed, AFP said.
Nine
people were also wounded when a car bomb later exploded at a busy road
intersection in the capital’s Mansur district and another car bomb
went off in a western neighborhood of the capital but there no
immediate casualty figures.
Wednesday’s
series of attacks was the bloodiest in the war-torn country over the
past two weeks where nearly 400 people were killed in several attacks
in the occupied country.
On
Tuesday, seven people were killed and 19 others wounded in two car
bomb blasts hitting the Iraqi capital.
The
latest upsurge of attacks in the occupied Arab country prompted many
Iraqi policemen to vent their anger on the US occupation forces, the
main reason for prevailing violence in the country.
“It’s
all because you’re here,” an Iraqi policeman shouted in Arabic at
a group of US soldiers after the latest in a bloody wave of attacks
that have rocked Baghdad this month, according to an AFP correspondent
on the scene.
“Get
out of our country and there will be no more explosions,” he told
the uncomprehending Americans staring at the smoldering wreck of a car
bomb.
The
United States invaded Iraq – without the UN authorization – to
topple the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein under claims of possessing
weapons of mass destruction, a claim that was proved baseless.
Governor
Kidnapped
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An
Iraqi child treated after sustaining injuries in Hawija blast.
(Reuters)
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And
in another sign of anarchy prevailing in the war-torn country, Nawaf
Raja Farhan Al-Mahalawi, governor of the western province of Al-Anbar,
where the US occupation forces are staging a large-scale military
operation against what it terms “insurgents”, was kidnapped
Tuesday.
The
Anbar governor was snatched as he drove to Al-Qaim near the Syrian
border from Ramadi, 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Baghdad, AFP
quoted sources as saying.
Officials
claimed that “rebels” with ties to Zarqawi’s group were using
the governor as a bargaining chip as US forces pressed on with
“Operation Matador”, one of the largest post-Saddam military
operations in Iraq.
The
US military claimed that “insurgents” used patients as human
shields in its fight against US forces.
But
the Zarqawi group denied such claims, vowing to launch more attacks
against the US occupation forces in Iraq, according to a statement
posted on the Internet Wednesday.
“They
accuse our mujahedeen (holy warriors) of using human shields. But you
are deceiving yourselves, worshippers of the cross... Wasn't it the
Americans who used women and children as shields in Fallujah?” said
the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified, according to
AFP.
Some
1,000 US troops backed by aircraft have swooped down on the desert
region to eradicate what it names “terrorists and foreign
fighters” in an area described as a sanctuary for Zarqawi and those
loyal to him.
Up
to 100 insurgents and three US marines were reported killed Sunday and
Monday in the US military operation in the area.
But
Zarqawi followers insisted Monday the US military had not killed 75 of
its members in battle, according to a statement posted on an Internet
Web site.
The
group claimed instead it had killed over 100 US soldiers and vowed to
press on with their attacks till they drive US-led occupation forces
out of Iraq.
The
pace of attacks and huge numbers of casualties in Iraq, over two years
after US President George W. Bush declared major combat over in May
1,2003, cast heavy doubts on the controversial political process that
was crowned with Jaafari’s cabinet.
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