23 killed in string of Baghdad attacks
Saturday, June 17, 2006; Posted: 9:41 a.m. EDT (13:41 GMT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 23 people were killed Saturday in Baghdad in a string of attacks around the capital, police say.
Four of the attacks occurred between 10 and 11 a.m. (0600 and 0700 GMT) while another took place in the early afternoon amid a major security crackdown in the city implemented by the government against insurgents.
The deadliest attack was the suicide car bomb, which targeted an Iraqi army-police patrol in central Baghdad around 11 a.m.
Eleven people, including one Iraqi soldier, were killed and 15 people were wounded, including eight soldiers and three police.
Four mortar rounds slammed into Sarabadi market in the Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiya in northwestern Baghdad, killing two and wounding 14 others. The incident took place around 10 a.m.
A bomb exploded in Haraj market in central Baghdad at 10:30 a.m., killing five people and wounding 25.
One person was killed and five were wounded when a car bomb detonated near the National Theatre in central Baghdad at 10:40 a.m.
Another incident took place around 1:15 p.m. in a Shiite neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad.
A bomb exploded in a minibus that was carrying passengers. Four people were killed and seven others were wounded.
Attack on soldiers
Saturday's blasts followed Friday violence that claimed at least one U.S. soldier. One U.S. soldier was killed while two others were unaccounted for Friday after they came under attack at a traffic checkpoint in Yusufiya, about 20 miles southwest of Baghdad.
A quick reaction team was searching for the missing soldiers early Saturday morning. The team was dispatched to the scene after other troops nearby heard gunfire. (Full story)
The soldiers were officially listed as "whereabouts unknown," which means they could have been captured or killed or could be hiding out.
Friday's death brought to 2,492 the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war. Seven American civilian employees of the military also have died in the conflict.
Suicide bomb at mosque
Meanwhile, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official on Saturday said authorities concluded the suicide bomber at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad on Friday managed to slip inside the mosque with explosives in his shoes and believe he was with an accomplice.
Police believe the bomber wanted to kill the imam at the holy site -- the Buratha Mosque in northwestern Baghdad -- Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir, a member of parliament affiliated with the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance -- the coalition that won a plurality in the December 15 parliamentary elections.
The bombing killed 11 and wounded 25 during Friday prayers. It occurred during a four-hour vehicle ban designed to thwart suicide car bombings and it came during the start of a major Baghdad security crackdown.
Maj. Gen. Mahdi al-Gharrawi of the Interior Ministry told CNN the bomber went into a bathroom either carrying or wearing his shoes, removed the explosives, placed them in a suicide belt, and then sat among prayer-goers with the belt strapped on.
Around that time, guards in the mosque discovered shoes set aside with explosives in them and began searching the mosque for the owner of the shoes.
When the searching was conducted, the bomber detonated himself.
The shoes the authorities found didn't detonate, and the owner of those shoes is thought to have fled the scene, police believe.
It is the custom to remove shoes when entering a mosque.
Suicide bombers also struck the mosque on April 7, killing more than 80 people. |
