Iraq: Bombing of Minibus in Shiite Area Kills 7

Source: Associated Press

Iraq: Bombing of minibus in Shiite area kills 7

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer – 24 mins ago
BAGHDAD – A bomb tore through a minibus during morning rush hour Monday in a mainly Shiite area in Baghdad, killing at least seven people and wounding 24, Iraqi officials said.

The blast was a grim reminder of the major challenge facing Iraqi forces three weeks ahead of the June 30 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from urban areas.

The bomb was attached to the minibus in the southern area of Abu Dshir, a Shiite enclave in the mainly Sunni neighborhood of Dora, police said.

"A ball of fire rose into the sky. We saw a minibus thrown about five meters (yards) into the air, then come down in flames," said Omar Abdul-Ghafar, a university student who was waiting with his friend for another bus.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090608/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

Residents and policemen gathered near the wreckage of a vehicle used in a car bombing at a market near the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on Wednesday.


BAGHDAD — A rare car bomb near the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya killed at least 28 people at an outdoor market, provoking a near riot among survivors who began stoning the police, blaming them for lax security.Police officers in Al Batha, a town about 25 miles west of Nasiriya, dispersed the angry crowd by firing randomly, wounding at least one protester, witnesses said.
The governor of Dhi Qar Province, where the bombing occurred, immediately dismissed Al Batha’s chief of police, Lt. Col. Assad Hussein, for negligence, according to Abdul Husain Shenawa, director of the province’s media office.

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It was the first such bombing directed at civilians near Nasiriya, a largely Shiite city, in the past two years, according to Ali Hosseini, another media department official. There have been internal clashes in the area between armed Shiite factions.

Iraqi officials blamed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a largely Iraqi group with some foreign leadership. Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi said, “Targeting the cities, especially those which witnessed stability for several years, is nothing but a desperate attempt from Al Qaeda and former regime members to bring back disorder, to discredit our achievements in security and to reflect on the readiness of our armed forces.”

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The police said the bomb was inside a parked car near the outdoor market, and photographs of the scene showed a nearly completely destroyed car that appeared to be a Chevrolet Caprice. The bomb was detonated shortly after 9 a.m., when the market was full of shoppers. Most of the shoppers at that time would normally have been women with young children, residents said.

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Parking normally is banned near the market, a common precaution throughout Iraq wherever crowds gather. “This is a security breach which resulted in dozens of women and children killed,” said Muhammad Shatheer, 47, a merchant who sells electrical parts near the market.
He said he and others saw the Chevrolet parked near the market and warned the police about it.

“They didn’t care about this or do anything about it,” he said.

A crowd, including many survivors and lightly wounded people, gathered at the scene, voicing similar complaints. About midday, many of them began stoning police officers who were securing the bomb site, witnesses said.

“Our men, our women and our children have been killed right in front of police eyes, and they did nothing, now they come here to push around the poor people who lost their relatives,” said Abu Ali al-Rekabi, 52, a laborer who was among the protesters.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?partner=rss&emc=rss


British bugged out long ago so the locals can turn their venom on the slacker police force the Brits trained.