By Thomas Wagner
Associated Press, 25 April 2005
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi insurgents staged carefully co-ordinated bombings in Saddam Hussein's hometown and a Shiite neighbourhood of the capital Sunday, killing at least 21 people. An American soldier was killed in a separate attack.
Legislators, meanwhile, said Iraq's new prime minister was ready to announce a cabinet that would exclude his interim predecessor, Ayad Allawi.
Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al-Jaafari had decided, some members of his political bloc said, to shun further attempts to include members of the party headed by Allawi, the secular Shiite politician who had served as prime minister as the country prepared for elections Jan. 30.
Members of Allawi's Iraqi List, which controls 40 seats in the National Assembly, said his party had not been officially informed of the development. Allawi loyalists were bidding for at least four ministries, including a senior government post and a deputy prime ministership.
Insurgent attacks had dropped dramatically shortly after the polls, but spiralled upward in recent weeks as the politicians failed to name a government.
Militant violence over the weekend took at least 38 lives, including those of three Americans.
Also Sunday, the U.S. military said it had detained four more suspects in the downing of a civilian Mi-8 helicopter on Thursday. All 11 passengers and crew were killed, including a survivor gunned down by insurgents. Ten suspects have been apprehended in all, the military said.
A vehicle packed with explosives was driven into a crowd gathered in front of a popular ice cream shop in Baghdad's western al-Shoulah neighbourhood Sunday, police Maj. Mousa Abdul Karim said. Minutes later, as police and residents rushed to help the victims, a second suicide car bomber plowed into the crowd. At least 15 people were killed and 40 wounded.
Shattered glass, pools of blood, and pieces of flesh littered the scene.
Members of Iraq's Shiite majority have become a frequent target of Sunni-led insurgents. On Friday, a car bomb ripped through a crowded Shiite mosque in eastern Baghdad during midday prayers, killing 12 people and wounding 22.
In Saddam's hometown of Tikrit on Sunday, two remotely detonated car bombs exploded in quick succession outside a police academy, killing at least six Iraqis and wounding 33, police and a hospital official said. The blasts occurred as recruits were about to leave the station and travel to Jordan for a training, said police Lieut. Shalan Allawi.
Insurgents also attacked U.S. forces. A roadside bomb hit one convoy in eastern Baghdad, killing one American soldier and wounding two, the U.S. military said. Iraqi police said two civilians also were wounded in the attack.
An American sailor was killed Saturday when the marine convoy he was travelling with was hit by a roadside bomb in Fallujah, 65 kilometres west of Baghdad, the military said.
At least 1,568 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
"Al-Qaida in Iraq," the country's most feared militant group, claimed responsibility for the Tikrit and eastern Baghdad attacks in statements posted on militant websites.
The group also claimed responsibility for a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol near the Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad. The U.S. military said no one was hurt in that attack.
South of the capital, three insurgents were killed Sunday as the roadside bomb they were trying to plant in the town of Mahawil exploded, said police in nearby Hillah.
In Pakistan, a government spokesman said a Pakistan embassy official who was kidnapped in Iraq two weeks ago was freed Sunday. Malik Mohammed Javed was abducted April 9 after he left his residence in Baghdad to attend prayers at a mosque. The Pakistani government said after his abduction he was in the custody of a previously unknown Islamic militant group, Omar bin al-Khattab that had demanded a ransom for Javed's release.
------------------------
Citation: Thomas Wagner. "Iraqi Insurgents Launch Co-Ordinated Attacks, Killing At Least 21," Associated Press, 25 April 2005.
Original URL: http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050424/w042480.html
------------------------