Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline: By ELENA BECATOROS
Date: 23 August 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_Iraq's interior minister narrowly escaped a roadside bomb
explosion Wednesday in a mainly Sunni part of the capital that U.S.
officials said last week had been virtually cleared of death squad cells.
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, a Shiite, was traveling in an armored car
in a convoy of about 10 vehicles when the bomb exploded in the Dora
neighborhood. The blast killed two bystanders, including a 12-year-old, and
wounded five traffic policemen, said Dora police officer Mohammad al
Baghdadi.
It was not clear if he was the intended target or whether the bomb had been
meant for a U.S. military convoy that was about 500 meters (yards) behind.
Al-Bolani is a senior member of Iraq's new unity government, which is
struggling to put down a Sunni insurgency and sectarian fighting between
Shiite and Sunni extremists in Baghdad.
Dora had become a hotbed of militancy and sectarian violence, particularly
after a Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in the town of Samarra, north of
Baghdad, that has stoked fears of a civil war in Iraq.
The situation had become so bad that Dora residents had dubbed one street
"death road" because of the frequent clashes there between insurgents and
police.
But U.S. officials said last week that they had virtually cleared Dora of
death squad cells, insurgent sympathizers and extremists as part of a new
security strategy to clean up the capital neighborhood by neighborhood.
About 12,000 additional U.S. and Iraqi troops were brought in to Baghdad to
carry out the operations.
Elsewhere in Iraq, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside police
headquarters in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least one person,
while British officials said a barrage of 17 mortar rounds were fired at one
of their bases in the south.
The suicide bomber in Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of
Baghdad, detonated his explosives when he was stopped at a checkpoint as he
tried to enter the police building, said Maj. Gen. Wathiq al-Hamdani, the
city police chief.
One woman was killed and 10 people were injured in the blast, he said.
Mosul, a predominantly Sunni Arab city, has been the scene of frequent
attacks on Iraqi government facilities by Sunni insurgents.
The 17 mortar rounds were fired Tuesday at Camp Abu Naji, a British base in
Amarah, 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Maj. Charlie
Burbridge, spokesman for British forces, said from Basra.
One British soldier was wounded and was hospitalized in stable condition, he
said.
One more mortar round landed at the camp Wednesday, but it did not cause any
injuries or damage, he added.
Burbridge said the base, which has come under frequent attack over the past
three years, was being closed down "imminently, in the next couple of days,"
as Iraqi forces were in a position to take over security in the area.
British forces would be repositioned to the east of Amarah and would focus
on tackling smuggling, particularly of weapons, from across the border with
Iran, he said.
Amarah is a predominantly Shiite city where anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia wields considerable influence. British troops
have come under frequent attacks there.
"If two days go by without some kind of attack in the direction of the camp,
we'd be surprised," Burbridge said.
Also in the south, firefighters extinguished a blaze outside the Shuaiba oil
refinery, one of Iraq's three main refineries, authorities said.
The fire, which sent thick plumes of smoke billowing across the area,
erupted "due to leaks in the pipelines outside the Shuaiba refinery," said
engineer Ihssan Abdul Jabar, coordinator of the South Oil Co. that runs the
facility.
Also Wednesday, an Iraqi army officer, 1st Lt. Hassanein Saadi al-Zerjawi,
29, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Amarah while a policeman was
shot dead in a similar incident Tuesday night in Al-Hay, north of Amarah,
police said.
A roadside bomb missed a U.S. military convoy in Fallujah, 65 kilometers (40
miles) west of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing two pedestrians and injuring
12, said Fallujah police Lt. Ahmed Salim.
The shooting and the missile attacks are part of the political and sectarian
violence sweeping Iraq, which last month claimed 3,500 lives, making July
the deadliest month since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
Since then, Sunni Arab insurgents have been regularly attacking U.S. and
Iraqi troops, mostly in the Baghdad area and in the Anbar province to its
west.
Byline: By ELENA BECATOROS
Date: 23 August 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq_Iraq's interior minister narrowly escaped a roadside bomb
explosion Wednesday in a mainly Sunni part of the capital that U.S.
officials said last week had been virtually cleared of death squad cells.
Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, a Shiite, was traveling in an armored car
in a convoy of about 10 vehicles when the bomb exploded in the Dora
neighborhood. The blast killed two bystanders, including a 12-year-old, and
wounded five traffic policemen, said Dora police officer Mohammad al
Baghdadi.
It was not clear if he was the intended target or whether the bomb had been
meant for a U.S. military convoy that was about 500 meters (yards) behind.
Al-Bolani is a senior member of Iraq's new unity government, which is
struggling to put down a Sunni insurgency and sectarian fighting between
Shiite and Sunni extremists in Baghdad.
Dora had become a hotbed of militancy and sectarian violence, particularly
after a Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite mosque in the town of Samarra, north of
Baghdad, that has stoked fears of a civil war in Iraq.
The situation had become so bad that Dora residents had dubbed one street
"death road" because of the frequent clashes there between insurgents and
police.
But U.S. officials said last week that they had virtually cleared Dora of
death squad cells, insurgent sympathizers and extremists as part of a new
security strategy to clean up the capital neighborhood by neighborhood.
About 12,000 additional U.S. and Iraqi troops were brought in to Baghdad to
carry out the operations.
Elsewhere in Iraq, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside police
headquarters in the northern city of Mosul, killing at least one person,
while British officials said a barrage of 17 mortar rounds were fired at one
of their bases in the south.
The suicide bomber in Mosul, 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of
Baghdad, detonated his explosives when he was stopped at a checkpoint as he
tried to enter the police building, said Maj. Gen. Wathiq al-Hamdani, the
city police chief.
One woman was killed and 10 people were injured in the blast, he said.
Mosul, a predominantly Sunni Arab city, has been the scene of frequent
attacks on Iraqi government facilities by Sunni insurgents.
The 17 mortar rounds were fired Tuesday at Camp Abu Naji, a British base in
Amarah, 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Maj. Charlie
Burbridge, spokesman for British forces, said from Basra.
One British soldier was wounded and was hospitalized in stable condition, he
said.
One more mortar round landed at the camp Wednesday, but it did not cause any
injuries or damage, he added.
Burbridge said the base, which has come under frequent attack over the past
three years, was being closed down "imminently, in the next couple of days,"
as Iraqi forces were in a position to take over security in the area.
British forces would be repositioned to the east of Amarah and would focus
on tackling smuggling, particularly of weapons, from across the border with
Iran, he said.
Amarah is a predominantly Shiite city where anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia wields considerable influence. British troops
have come under frequent attacks there.
"If two days go by without some kind of attack in the direction of the camp,
we'd be surprised," Burbridge said.
Also in the south, firefighters extinguished a blaze outside the Shuaiba oil
refinery, one of Iraq's three main refineries, authorities said.
The fire, which sent thick plumes of smoke billowing across the area,
erupted "due to leaks in the pipelines outside the Shuaiba refinery," said
engineer Ihssan Abdul Jabar, coordinator of the South Oil Co. that runs the
facility.
Also Wednesday, an Iraqi army officer, 1st Lt. Hassanein Saadi al-Zerjawi,
29, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Amarah while a policeman was
shot dead in a similar incident Tuesday night in Al-Hay, north of Amarah,
police said.
A roadside bomb missed a U.S. military convoy in Fallujah, 65 kilometers (40
miles) west of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing two pedestrians and injuring
12, said Fallujah police Lt. Ahmed Salim.
The shooting and the missile attacks are part of the political and sectarian
violence sweeping Iraq, which last month claimed 3,500 lives, making July
the deadliest month since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
Since then, Sunni Arab insurgents have been regularly attacking U.S. and
Iraqi troops, mostly in the Baghdad area and in the Anbar province to its
west.