Wow, these guys score -0- for originality, but they sure can stack up the corpses.
Iraq Car Bomb Kills 10; PM to Address Security
by Fadil Badran
(Reuters)
HADITHA -- A car bomb killed 10 people including several Iraqi policemen in a town northwest of Baghdad Thursday, a day after a powerful blast tore through the capital and a top regional official was assassinated.
Health Ministry officials said 40 people were wounded in the attack near the main police station in Haditha. Two children and bank workers were among the dead.
The fresh violence followed a suicide car bombing in Baghdad Wednesday which killed 11 people and wounded 30 in the first big guerrilla attack in the capital since an interim Iraqi government took over from U.S.-led occupiers on June 28.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was due to address Iraq's security woes at a news conference Thursday, a spokeswoman said.
The government plans to offer an amnesty to insurgents if they lay down their weapons, although the spokeswoman would not say if Allawi would announce the offer Thursday.
In a further sign of the security headaches facing Allawi, gunmen killed the governor of the northern city of Mosul, Osama Kashmoula, Wednesday in an attack on his convoy.
Najim al-Din, a doctor at a Haditha hospital, said 10 people were killed and 40 wounded in the attack in the town 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
The blast damaged a municipal building and a bank.
"Some of the dead are police, some work in the Haditha bank, while two are children," Din told Reuters.
Rocket Attack
In Kirkuk, a mother and her three children were killed when a rocket landed on their house late Wednesday as they slept on the roof to escape the summer heat, police said.
Reuters Television pictures showed spattered pools of blood and blood-drenched furnishings on the roof of the home on the outskirts of Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad.
"We don't know where the rocket was fired from or what the target was," said Colonel Kamaran Ahmed of the Kirkuk police.
In the southern city of Kerbala, police said a car bomb exploded around midnight about 500 meters (yards) from a base where Bulgarian troops are based. Two people inside the car were killed but there were no other casualties.
Bulgaria has 450 troops based on the outskirts of Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad.
Fire erupted in an oil pipeline in northern Iraq Thursday near the country's main Kirkuk oilfields, witnesses said. The country's northern export pipeline runs through the area.
Hostage Crisis
In Manila, the Philippine military awaited orders to pull its small contingent out of Iraq in a bid to save the life of a civilian hostage as the United States piled pressure on its Asian ally not to cave in to militants' demands.
"In a time of test where enemies demand you kneel...I just ask you please don't confuse your enemies or your friends," U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone said after a meeting with Philippine Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita Thursday.
Militants have threatened to kill truck driver Angelo de la Cruz unless Manila withdraws its 51 personnel by July 20, a month ahead of schedule.
Bulgaria watched a deadline for the execution of a Bulgarian hostage pass without news Wednesday but stood firm on its pro-U.S. policies and refused to pull out its troops.
Militants led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have killed one of two Bulgarian truck drivers held hostage and are threatening to execute the second. Arabic Al Jazeera television said Tuesday night a video of that execution was too gruesome to air.
A Saudi firm said it was ready to quit Iraq to meet the demands of militants holding an Egyptian truck driver.
In Mosul, police said they had killed one man and arrested two others over suspected involvement in the killing of governor Kashmoula.
He was killed along with his two bodyguards in a grenade attack on his convoy on the highway between Baghdad and Mosul.
Kashmoula was the most senior official to be assassinated in Iraq since May, when a suicide bomber killed the head of Iraq's now-defunct Governing Council.
Wednesday, Allawi condemned the "naked aggression" of those behind the Baghdad bombing outside a main entrance to the heavily defended "Green Zone" compound, which houses government buildings along with the U.S. and British embassies.
Iraq launched a national security law last week under which the government can impose emergency law on specific areas of the country, but has yet to make such a move.
Iraq Car Bomb Kills 10; PM to Address Security
by Fadil Badran
(Reuters)
HADITHA -- A car bomb killed 10 people including several Iraqi policemen in a town northwest of Baghdad Thursday, a day after a powerful blast tore through the capital and a top regional official was assassinated.
Health Ministry officials said 40 people were wounded in the attack near the main police station in Haditha. Two children and bank workers were among the dead.
The fresh violence followed a suicide car bombing in Baghdad Wednesday which killed 11 people and wounded 30 in the first big guerrilla attack in the capital since an interim Iraqi government took over from U.S.-led occupiers on June 28.
Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was due to address Iraq's security woes at a news conference Thursday, a spokeswoman said.
The government plans to offer an amnesty to insurgents if they lay down their weapons, although the spokeswoman would not say if Allawi would announce the offer Thursday.
In a further sign of the security headaches facing Allawi, gunmen killed the governor of the northern city of Mosul, Osama Kashmoula, Wednesday in an attack on his convoy.
Najim al-Din, a doctor at a Haditha hospital, said 10 people were killed and 40 wounded in the attack in the town 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Baghdad.
The blast damaged a municipal building and a bank.
"Some of the dead are police, some work in the Haditha bank, while two are children," Din told Reuters.
Rocket Attack
In Kirkuk, a mother and her three children were killed when a rocket landed on their house late Wednesday as they slept on the roof to escape the summer heat, police said.
Reuters Television pictures showed spattered pools of blood and blood-drenched furnishings on the roof of the home on the outskirts of Kirkuk, 155 miles north of Baghdad.
"We don't know where the rocket was fired from or what the target was," said Colonel Kamaran Ahmed of the Kirkuk police.
In the southern city of Kerbala, police said a car bomb exploded around midnight about 500 meters (yards) from a base where Bulgarian troops are based. Two people inside the car were killed but there were no other casualties.
Bulgaria has 450 troops based on the outskirts of Kerbala, 110 km (68 miles) southwest of Baghdad.
Fire erupted in an oil pipeline in northern Iraq Thursday near the country's main Kirkuk oilfields, witnesses said. The country's northern export pipeline runs through the area.
Hostage Crisis
In Manila, the Philippine military awaited orders to pull its small contingent out of Iraq in a bid to save the life of a civilian hostage as the United States piled pressure on its Asian ally not to cave in to militants' demands.
"In a time of test where enemies demand you kneel...I just ask you please don't confuse your enemies or your friends," U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone said after a meeting with Philippine Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita Thursday.
Militants have threatened to kill truck driver Angelo de la Cruz unless Manila withdraws its 51 personnel by July 20, a month ahead of schedule.
Bulgaria watched a deadline for the execution of a Bulgarian hostage pass without news Wednesday but stood firm on its pro-U.S. policies and refused to pull out its troops.
Militants led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have killed one of two Bulgarian truck drivers held hostage and are threatening to execute the second. Arabic Al Jazeera television said Tuesday night a video of that execution was too gruesome to air.
A Saudi firm said it was ready to quit Iraq to meet the demands of militants holding an Egyptian truck driver.
In Mosul, police said they had killed one man and arrested two others over suspected involvement in the killing of governor Kashmoula.
He was killed along with his two bodyguards in a grenade attack on his convoy on the highway between Baghdad and Mosul.
Kashmoula was the most senior official to be assassinated in Iraq since May, when a suicide bomber killed the head of Iraq's now-defunct Governing Council.
Wednesday, Allawi condemned the "naked aggression" of those behind the Baghdad bombing outside a main entrance to the heavily defended "Green Zone" compound, which houses government buildings along with the U.S. and British embassies.
Iraq launched a national security law last week under which the government can impose emergency law on specific areas of the country, but has yet to make such a move.
