Bombings in Iraq kill at least 16
(AP)Updated: 2007-06-25 15:49
BAGHDAD - A surge of suicide car bombings south and north of Baghdad on Monday morning killed at least 16 people and wounded more than 40 others, authorities said. Two of three attacks were aimed at US military targets, but no American casualties were reported.
 Iraqi woman exits an armored Iraqi military vehicle in Baqouba, 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad, Sunday, June 24, 2007. [AP]  |
American troops share the post with the local police, on the main road in central Beiji.
About 45 minutes later, another suicide car bomb exploded at a joint US-Iraqi army checkpoint in central Siniyah, nine miles west of Beiji, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding three others, an Iraqi army officer reported.
Eyewitnesses said a US Humvee vehicle was damaged in the blast, but "there were no US casualties in both incidents," said Spc. Brian Bucy, a spokesman for Task Force Lightning, the US military command covering the Beiji area.
American aircraft quickly appeared over the Beiji area and attacked suspected insurgent targets, eyewitnesses said.
Earlier in the morning, a suicide car bomber struck a checkpoint near the governor's offices in the predominantly Shiite southern city of Hillah, killing at least eight people and wounding 31, police said.
It was the second such attack in Hillah in three days. A parked car packed with explosives blew up on Saturday in the center of the city, 60 miles south of Baghdad, killing two people.
Three of the eight killed in the 6:30 a.m. explosion were policemen, as were at least four of the wounded, said a spokesman for the provincial police department.
The attacker drove his car into a checkpoint that leads to the headquarters of the Babil provincial government.
Police officer Baha Abdul-Sadda, 21, said he saw a red sedan speeding toward the headquarters, surprising police at the checkpoint and on the building's roof.
"The suicide bomber took advantage of the early hour and intended to hit the metal barrier to get inside to hit the building, but the car exploded prematurely at the metal barrier," he said. Abdul-Sadda, who suffered a head injury when thrown against a wall by the blast, spoke from his hospital bed.
The blast damaged the concrete walls surrounding the main building and shattered glass, but relatively few people were in the area because of the early hour, limiting the casualties, the police spokesman said.
Hillah, the capital of Babil, has been the target of some of the deadliest car bomb attacks by suspected Sunni Muslim extremists in the four years of insurgency and sectarian killings in Iraq.
In other violence, two mortar rounds Monday morning struck Baghdad's Fadhil district, a Sunni enclave in the central city, killing two civilians and wounding three others, police said.
In the southern city of Basra, the body of a kidnapped Iraqi army intelligence officer, Lt. Col. Faris Mohammed of the 10th Division, was found Sunday in the al-Fursi district, it was reported Monday by a British military spokesman in Basra.
Mohammed had been seized from his car on Saturday while being driven from nearby Shaibah to Basra. His driver and bodyguard were released unharmed, spokesman Maj. Matthew Bird said. "The Iraqi army is continuing its investigation into the incident," he said.
Iraqi police and other authorities often speak only on condition of anonymity, because of concerns over personal security or because they are not authorized to divulge information.
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