A rchive Date
[ 25-07-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Iraq ]
|
[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/07/24/1145889-ap.html
Iraqi suicide bomber kills 39
July 25, 2005
BAGHDAD (AP) - Suicide car bombers struck twice Monday in Baghdad, killing 14 other people and injuring nearly 30, hospital and government officials said.
The first blast occurred shortly after sunrise at a security checkpoint near the Sadeer Hotel in central Baghdad, officials said. The Iraqi Defence Ministry said 12 people, not including the bomber, were killed and 18 were injured, including security guards and civilians. About three hours later, a second suicide bomber targeted a former Saddam Hussein palace being used by the Ministry of Interior police command.
Two commandos were killed and 10 people were injured, police said.
Maj. Gen. Adnan Thabit told Al-Jazeera television that commandos opened fire on the vehicle detonating it about 50 metres from the palace.
On Sunday, a suicide truck bomber attacked a police station in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 22 others and devastating shops in the area.
The Sadeer Hotel attack shook the heart of the capital and sent a huge plume of black smoke rising over the 14th of Ramadan Mosque along the traffic circle where the statue of Saddam was hauled down by Iraqis and U.S. Marines on April 9, 2003.
The injured include people in nearby shops and cafes which were damaged by the blast.
Alaa Issa, who works as a guard at the Sadeer, said from his hospital bed that "I don't remember anything but waking up in the hospital."
Mohammed Badr, who works at a nearby restaurant, said he first felt the concussion wave from the blast, "then I heard the explosion."
"Part of the ceiling fell on me," he said at the hospital.
In March, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's "al-Qaida in Iraq" purportedly posted a video on a website showing the huge explosion at the Sadeer Hotel, killing four and wounding 40 others, including 30 American contractors.
Al-Zarqawi's group described the Sadeer as the "hotel of the Jew."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
|