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Multiple Baghdad blasts
claim dozens
Aljazeera.net
Thursday 23 June 2005 - Seven bombs
have rocked Baghdad, killing at least
38 people, just hours after the Iraqi
government met members of the international
community in Brussels to seek reconstruction
help.
Three bombs shook central Baghdad after
dawn on Thursday, killing at least 15
people, injuring another 50 and sending
smoke and flame above the main street
of the popular Karrada shopping district,
police said.
Hours earlier, a triple car bombing
hit a mainly Shia district of the capital
following a day of meetings in Brussels
between the new Shia-led government,
its US sponsors and other foreign powers.
Police said a car bomber killed three
policemen and wounded two when he drove
at their patrol in Karrada. Two other,
apparently stationary, cars exploded
in the same area within minutes, one
close to a Shia mosque.
A Reuters Television cameraman saw
at least three bodies being carried
away from the scene of the attack on
the police patrol.
The bombs were close to each other
and went off a few minutes apart, shortly
after 7am (0300 GMT).
The early hour may have reduced the
toll.
Arrests
Also on Thursday, Iraqi police detained
50 suspected fighters in separate raids
in southeastern Baghdad and north of
the capital, officials said.
An Iraqi police rapid response team
detained 30 people near Baquba, including
six suspected foreign fighters from
Syria, Egypt and Sudan, Lieutenant-Colonel
Walid Ismail said.
Separately, police also detained 20
suspects in three southeastern Baghdad
neighbourhoods, police spokesman Othman
al-Lami said.
The US military, meanwhile, announced
that Iraqi soldiers captured four "terror
suspects" in western Baghdad on
Wednesday, and a joint Iraqi-US force
seized weapons caches in northeast and
central Baghdad, including 16 AK-47
assault rifles and ammunition.
Wednesday's attacks
Late Wednesday evening, a coordinated
series of four car
bombs had killed at least 23 people
and wounded 48, including sidewalk diners
and passengers at a bus station, in
a mainly Shia district of the capital,
the police said.
Fierce clashes overnight erupted at
1am and continued until 5am in al-Khadhra
neighbourhood, Iraqi journalist Ziyad
al-Samarrai told Aljazeera.
The clashes resulted in the killing
and wounding of scores of people and
the destruction of several nearby houses,
he added.
In another incident, the headquarters
of the Major Crimes Department in al-Amiriyah
district was targeted. Fighters launched
an intense and coordinated attack, using
a car bomb and mortars, the Iraqi journalist
said.
In all, at least 32 people were killed
on Wednesday across Iraq, including
a prominent Sunni law professor assassinated
by armed men.
Jassim al-Issawi was a former judge
who put his name forward at one point
to join the committee drafting Iraq's
constitution.
The US military said three US soldiers
were killed a day earlier during combat
operations west of Baghdad near Ramadi.
Meanwhile, in Brussels, Belgium, an
international conference adopted a declaration
of support for the war-torn nation,
backing the Iraqi government's "efforts
to achieve a democratic, pluralist,
federal and unified Iraq".
:: Article nr. 12932 sent on 23-jun-2005
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