Iraqis Attack Police After Bombing

Source: NYT

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.

There were conflicting accounts of the death toll, with an official at the provincial health department putting the number at 28 dead and 70 wounded, and warning that the toll might climb.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper