Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
June 23, 2008
Pg. 6
By Richard A. Oppel Jr.
BAGHDAD — The latest in a wave of female suicide bombers killed 15 people and wounded more than 40 others on Sunday near a heavily fortified courthouse and government outpost in central Baquba, Iraqi security officials said. Seven of the dead and 10 of the wounded were Iraqi police officers.
The bombing was the most devastating of four attacks by guerrillas in Diyala Province on Sunday that left at least 25 people dead and close to 60 wounded.
While Diyala is no longer under the almost complete control of Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias, as it was much of last year, a spate of attacks has prompted concerns about the endurance of recent security gains and the extent to which guerrillas in some areas still operate freely.
Hours after the explosion in Baquba, a mortar volley struck north of Khalis, in the western end of Diyala, killing seven people and wounding 12, according to provincial police officials. The mortar shells were believed to have been fired from villages around Khalis, which one police official said “have seen a remarkable increase in the activities of the armed groups recently.”
The bomber who struck in Baquba, the provincial capital, wore a vest padded with powerful explosives and laced with small projectiles, which appeared to be iron ball bearings, the officials said. The magnitude of the blast raised questions about the sophistication of the bomb, which witnesses described as unusually strong.
“The explosion was huge, like it was a car bomb,” said Adnan Majid, a 29-year-old library worker who was wounded in the arm. The bodies of at least three police officers were torn to pieces, security officials said.
The bomber struck inside a cordon established around the government center to admit only government and police vehicles. With few vehicles or other large objects to deflect the bomb, the explosion cast shrapnel across a wide radius and into a crowded area that people believed had been made safe by the cordon.
Some victims were sitting in parked Iraqi police trucks or had just left the vehicles, which had been used to transport prisoners to a court near the main government building of Diyala Province, officials said.
Everyone near the government center, including women, must submit to searches, said Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Rubaie, a senior security official in Diyala. But the bomber appeared to mill among a large number of pedestrians before quietly approaching the parked convoy.
General Rubaie said this attack and others involving female suicide bombers in Diyala were carried out by the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and “takfiris,” a catchall term used to describe Sunni extremists who attack Shiites because they believe Shiites practice a heretical form of Islam.
Despite the much touted decline in violence across Iraq, there have been a number of bloody strikes recently against Shiite and Sunni targets, demonstrating that antigovernment guerrillas still have the wherewithal to carry out large attacks.
More than a dozen people were killed east of Falluja last month in a bombing directed at relatives of the city’s police chief. Last week, more than 60 people were killed in the Huriya district of Baghdad in an explosion that residents said was set by Sunni extremists, but that the American military said might have been carried out by Shiite militants seeking to stir sectarian hatred.
On Sunday four people were killed west of Kirkuk — where Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Turkmen are vying for control — by a roadside bomb that struck their car, according to the Kirkuk police.
Insurgents also struck another part of Diyala on Sunday. Three Iraqi soldiers were killed by a large roadside bomb near Muqdadiya in central Diyala, provincial security officials said. And about 20 gunmen abducted five shepherds near Buhriz, which is south of Baquba, the officials said.
The attack at the Baquba government center underscored a growing problem for Iraqi security forces: female attackers, wearing the black, flowing head-to-toe robes known as abayas, who have been able to sneak bombs into crowds when male suicide bombers would have faced more aggressive searches or had difficulty concealing a bomb.
Many suicide bombers are believed to come from outside Iraq. But the American military issued a statement Sunday evening describing the attacker in Baquba as a female Iraqi citizen.
Fifteen other women have carried out suicide bomb attacks in Diyala Province, according to General Rubaie. Islamic rules prevent men, including security officers conducting searches, from touching women. Compounding the predicament is a scarcity of female Iraqi police and soldiers who might otherwise fill the gap.
“Most of our women wear black cloaks that can hide anything,” General Rubaie said, “and we can’t prevent that.”
Mudhafer al-Husaini contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Diyala Province and Kirkuk.
June 23, 2008
Pg. 6
By Richard A. Oppel Jr.
BAGHDAD — The latest in a wave of female suicide bombers killed 15 people and wounded more than 40 others on Sunday near a heavily fortified courthouse and government outpost in central Baquba, Iraqi security officials said. Seven of the dead and 10 of the wounded were Iraqi police officers.
The bombing was the most devastating of four attacks by guerrillas in Diyala Province on Sunday that left at least 25 people dead and close to 60 wounded.
While Diyala is no longer under the almost complete control of Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias, as it was much of last year, a spate of attacks has prompted concerns about the endurance of recent security gains and the extent to which guerrillas in some areas still operate freely.
Hours after the explosion in Baquba, a mortar volley struck north of Khalis, in the western end of Diyala, killing seven people and wounding 12, according to provincial police officials. The mortar shells were believed to have been fired from villages around Khalis, which one police official said “have seen a remarkable increase in the activities of the armed groups recently.”
The bomber who struck in Baquba, the provincial capital, wore a vest padded with powerful explosives and laced with small projectiles, which appeared to be iron ball bearings, the officials said. The magnitude of the blast raised questions about the sophistication of the bomb, which witnesses described as unusually strong.
“The explosion was huge, like it was a car bomb,” said Adnan Majid, a 29-year-old library worker who was wounded in the arm. The bodies of at least three police officers were torn to pieces, security officials said.
The bomber struck inside a cordon established around the government center to admit only government and police vehicles. With few vehicles or other large objects to deflect the bomb, the explosion cast shrapnel across a wide radius and into a crowded area that people believed had been made safe by the cordon.
Some victims were sitting in parked Iraqi police trucks or had just left the vehicles, which had been used to transport prisoners to a court near the main government building of Diyala Province, officials said.
Everyone near the government center, including women, must submit to searches, said Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Rubaie, a senior security official in Diyala. But the bomber appeared to mill among a large number of pedestrians before quietly approaching the parked convoy.
General Rubaie said this attack and others involving female suicide bombers in Diyala were carried out by the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and “takfiris,” a catchall term used to describe Sunni extremists who attack Shiites because they believe Shiites practice a heretical form of Islam.
Despite the much touted decline in violence across Iraq, there have been a number of bloody strikes recently against Shiite and Sunni targets, demonstrating that antigovernment guerrillas still have the wherewithal to carry out large attacks.
More than a dozen people were killed east of Falluja last month in a bombing directed at relatives of the city’s police chief. Last week, more than 60 people were killed in the Huriya district of Baghdad in an explosion that residents said was set by Sunni extremists, but that the American military said might have been carried out by Shiite militants seeking to stir sectarian hatred.
On Sunday four people were killed west of Kirkuk — where Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Turkmen are vying for control — by a roadside bomb that struck their car, according to the Kirkuk police.
Insurgents also struck another part of Diyala on Sunday. Three Iraqi soldiers were killed by a large roadside bomb near Muqdadiya in central Diyala, provincial security officials said. And about 20 gunmen abducted five shepherds near Buhriz, which is south of Baquba, the officials said.
The attack at the Baquba government center underscored a growing problem for Iraqi security forces: female attackers, wearing the black, flowing head-to-toe robes known as abayas, who have been able to sneak bombs into crowds when male suicide bombers would have faced more aggressive searches or had difficulty concealing a bomb.
Many suicide bombers are believed to come from outside Iraq. But the American military issued a statement Sunday evening describing the attacker in Baquba as a female Iraqi citizen.
Fifteen other women have carried out suicide bomb attacks in Diyala Province, according to General Rubaie. Islamic rules prevent men, including security officers conducting searches, from touching women. Compounding the predicament is a scarcity of female Iraqi police and soldiers who might otherwise fill the gap.
“Most of our women wear black cloaks that can hide anything,” General Rubaie said, “and we can’t prevent that.”
Mudhafer al-Husaini contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Diyala Province and Kirkuk.