Many Killed in New Baghdad Attacks

18/02/2005| IslamWeb

At least 36 people have been killed and dozens wounded in twin attacks near Shia mosques in southern and western Baghdad, hospital and police sources have said. 

Survivors said a man wearing a "suicide belt" blew himself up on Friday in al-Kathimia mosque in Abu Dushair district south of Baghdad. At least 31 people were killed and 22 injured in the blast.

However, police sources said they thought rocket-propelled grenades had been fired at people who were marking Ashura, an important day in the Muslim calendar. 

The US military was not immediately available for comment. 

A second blast, apparently caused by a mortar attack, occurred outside the Ali al-Bayya mosque in a predominantly Shia neighbourhood of western Baghdad, killing five people and injuring eight, security sources said.

Police targeted

Three Iraqis were killed, including a child, and five were injured in an attack that targeted a police centre near the al-Thaqlain mosque in the predominantly Shia neighbourhood of al-Shuala, northwest of Baghdad. 

A similar attack killed two policemen and a member of the Iraq National Guard in the mostly Sunni area of Athamiya, police sources said.

US soldiers killed

Separately, three US soldiers were killed in three attacks in and around the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the US military said.

A car bomb exploded next to a US army patrol in Mosul, killing one soldier and wounding three on Thursday. In a second attack on Thursday, a soldier was shot dead in an exchange of fire. A roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded another in a third attack on the same day near Tal Afar, about 60km west of Mosul.

The US military also reported the killing of a fourth US soldier in a roadside bomb attack north of Baghdad late on Friday.

Two other US servicemen were injured in the attack, the US military said.

The deaths brought the number of US troops killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 to 1472. 

More violence

Also on Friday, police found in Karbala the bodies of two police officers, both the sons of the chief of police of Najaf, said Karbala police spokesman Rahman Mushawi. It was not clear who killed the two men. 

Their father, Ghalib al-Jazaini, said they had been seized overnight as they drove from Najaf to Karbala for the Ashura activities. Their hands were bound and they had been shot many times in the head. 

In northern Iraq, brief clashes broke out between US troops and fighters in Tal Afar, leaving one woman dead and six others wounded, hospital officials said. 

Also in northern Iraq, fighters fired six mortar rounds at the governor's office in Mosul. The shells exploded nearby. There was no immediate word on casualties. 

In Tikrit, also north of the capital, US-led forces said two fighters were killed and another was wounded trying to plant a roadside bomb. The injured man was arrested and taken to a military hospital. 

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraqi soldiers and US troops south of Baghdad. (AFP)