Suicide Truck Bomber Strikes Peaceful
Kurdish City
Baghdad, May 10 (AP):
A suicide truck bomber devastated the security headquarters in one of Iraq's
most peaceful cities on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people, wounding more
than 100 and showing that no corner of Iraq is immune from violence.
It was the first major
attack in Irbil, capital of the Kurdish self-governing region, in more than
three years. An al-Qaida front group claimed responsibility.
The explosion in Irbil,
a mountainous city of 1.5 million people about 350 kilometers (217 miles) north
of Baghdad, blew out all the windows of the three-story Interior Ministry
building and left piles of rubble and twisted metal beams.
Police said a truck
loaded with 800 kilograms (about a ton) of explosives hidden under detergent and
shampoo containers exploded while it was between two buildings. The road was
packed with vehicles because of construction work.
Ahmed Nasruldin, 50,
an employee at a local university, was riding to work when the blast spun his
bus around.
``The bus windows were
smashed and my face and head were hurt by shrapnel. A woman beside me fell on my
side, her shoulder was broken,'' he said.
The Islamic State of
Iraq, an al-Qaida front group, claimed responsibility for the blast, saying it
was in retaliation for the Kurdish regional government's decision to send
Kurdish troops to Baghdad to take part in the security crackdown.
The claim, posted on
an Islamic extremist Web site, could not be verified. If true, it would be the
first known attack by the Islamic State so far north. Most of the group's
operations have been in Baghdad and provinces of Anbar and Diyala.
Kurdish lawmaker
Mahmoud Othman blamed the attack on Ansar al-Sunnah, a Sunni Arab insurgent
group, and Ansar al-Islam, a mostly Kurdish militant group with ties to al-Qaida
in Iraq.
Ansar al-Sunnah
claimed responsibility for the last major attack in Irbil _ the Feb. 1, 2004
twin suicide blasts at two Kurdish political party receptions that claimed 109
people lives.
Othman said
authorities had been expecting a major attack somewhere in the Kurdish region
since police broke up a militant cell last week in the town of Sulaimaniyah.
``During questioning
they confessed that were getting training lessons in a neighboring country and
that was Iran,'' he said. ``Kurdistan is a safe region and this will have its
effect on trade, and companies will fear coming to this region.''
The Irbil attack
occurred one day after a suicide car bomber killed 16 people in Kufa, 160
kilometers (100 miles) south of Baghdad. Those attacks indicated that groups
hostile to the government remain capable of launching major strikes across the
country while U.S. forces battle to contain violence in Baghdad.
At least 32
bullet-riddled bodies were found in Iraq on Wednesday, including 25 in Baghdad,
most on the predominantly Sunni western side of the Tigris River, and three men
and two women in the northern city of Mosul. They were believed victims of
sectarian death squads.
The U.S. military also
announced Wednesday that an American soldier was killed and four others were
wounded the day before in a shooting attack in the volatile province of Diyala,
northeast of Baghdad.
U.S. military
spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell reported a ``slight uptick'' in the numbers
of execution-style killings, which had dropped sharply since the start of the
security campaign. Caldwell gave no figures.
Shootings and bombings
killed at least 39 other Iraqis, including nine passengers who were ambushed on
a bus traveling from the mainly Shiite city of Diwaniyah to Baghdad.
Gunmen also killed
three Iraqi journalists and their driver in a drive-by shooting near the
northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, police said. The four included the director
and other employees of the independent Raad media company, which publishes
several weekly newspapers and monthly magazines that deal with politics,
education and arts.
Ethnic tensions have
risen in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, over Kurdish
demands for a referendum on incorporating the city into their autonomous region
_ a move opposed by many Arabs.
The U.S.-led offensive
in Baghdad is intended to curb violence and allow the Shiite-led government some
breathing room to implement reforms, including proposals to empower minority
Sunnis Arabs and help end the insurgency. There has been little evidence,
though, of any movement toward those reforms.
A senior parliamentary
official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to
disclose the information, said that the government has submitted a list of six
independent Shiites to fill the posts vacated by al-Sadr supporters last month
and a confirmation vote would be held on Sunday. The black-turbaned cleric had
ordered his ministers to leave the government after al-Maliki refused to put a
timetable for foreign troops withdrawal.
