Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Reach of War
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“Suicide bomber!” they yelled.
The 42-year-old electronics store owner peered outside and saw an Iraqi soldier draw a pistol on a young woman wearing a black robe. The woman raised her arms. “I have nothing on me,” she pleaded.
But she did: Mr. Ali saw wires protruding from her clothing. The soldier, hands shaking, fired two bullets at the woman as she began to run toward the shops. Then another shop owner shot the woman again with a Kalashnikov assault rifle that he said he keeps in his store for protection.
The young woman fell hard, Mr. Ali said, but “managed to press the detonation button with her last breath.”
The explosion, near the National Theater, killed three people and wounded eight, according to the Iraqi police. The death toll would have been greater if the Iraqi soldier had not screamed a warning, said Hamid Khalil, who has a tea shop on the same street.
“He was very brave, but hesitant a bit,” Mr. Khalil said.
Hours later, a parked minibus exploded Sunday evening in a Shiite neighborhood of eastern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding two others. No motive for the attack was apparent, an official at the Interior Ministry said Sunday night.
Attacks like those two remain common, but American military officials reported Sunday that across Iraq, the average daily number of attacks fell to 82 in January. That is down 60 percent from the high reached last June, the officials said.
Deadly assaults on American troops continue, particularly in the northern Arab provinces, where Sunni Arab guerrillas have many strongholds.
In Diyala Province, two American soldiers were shot to death on Sunday, and another was wounded, according to the American military. No other information on their deaths was provided. They were the fourth and fifth American deaths in Diyala this month, and the 19th across the entire country, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent Web site that tracks military deaths.
In another deadly attack in the north, a car exploded in northern Mosul after Iraqi police officers were apparently lured close to the vehicle. As a policeman approached the car to inspect it, the bomb detonated, killing the policeman and a man and a woman nearby, the authorities in Mosul said. Two others were wounded.
Also on Sunday, the American military offered new details about a raid 120 miles north of Baghdad last week that left six people dead. Residents identified those killed as members of Awakening groups that have taken up arms against insurgents.
The military said that as forces arrived Wednesday night to try to capture a reputed leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni extremist group that American intelligence agencies say is led by foreigners, two “armed terrorists” fired at them. Previously, the Iraqi police said the Awakening guards, who were killed by the American troops, had mistakenly fired on the Americans, believing they were militants preparing to attack.
According to the American military, the troops and American planes fired back, killing four men and two women. The Americans also arrested 15 “suspected terrorists,” but 12 have been released.
Go to Complete Coverage
“Suicide bomber!” they yelled.
The 42-year-old electronics store owner peered outside and saw an Iraqi soldier draw a pistol on a young woman wearing a black robe. The woman raised her arms. “I have nothing on me,” she pleaded.
But she did: Mr. Ali saw wires protruding from her clothing. The soldier, hands shaking, fired two bullets at the woman as she began to run toward the shops. Then another shop owner shot the woman again with a Kalashnikov assault rifle that he said he keeps in his store for protection.
The young woman fell hard, Mr. Ali said, but “managed to press the detonation button with her last breath.”
The explosion, near the National Theater, killed three people and wounded eight, according to the Iraqi police. The death toll would have been greater if the Iraqi soldier had not screamed a warning, said Hamid Khalil, who has a tea shop on the same street.
“He was very brave, but hesitant a bit,” Mr. Khalil said.
Hours later, a parked minibus exploded Sunday evening in a Shiite neighborhood of eastern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding two others. No motive for the attack was apparent, an official at the Interior Ministry said Sunday night.
Attacks like those two remain common, but American military officials reported Sunday that across Iraq, the average daily number of attacks fell to 82 in January. That is down 60 percent from the high reached last June, the officials said.
Deadly assaults on American troops continue, particularly in the northern Arab provinces, where Sunni Arab guerrillas have many strongholds.
In Diyala Province, two American soldiers were shot to death on Sunday, and another was wounded, according to the American military. No other information on their deaths was provided. They were the fourth and fifth American deaths in Diyala this month, and the 19th across the entire country, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent Web site that tracks military deaths.
In another deadly attack in the north, a car exploded in northern Mosul after Iraqi police officers were apparently lured close to the vehicle. As a policeman approached the car to inspect it, the bomb detonated, killing the policeman and a man and a woman nearby, the authorities in Mosul said. Two others were wounded.
Also on Sunday, the American military offered new details about a raid 120 miles north of Baghdad last week that left six people dead. Residents identified those killed as members of Awakening groups that have taken up arms against insurgents.
The military said that as forces arrived Wednesday night to try to capture a reputed leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni extremist group that American intelligence agencies say is led by foreigners, two “armed terrorists” fired at them. Previously, the Iraqi police said the Awakening guards, who were killed by the American troops, had mistakenly fired on the Americans, believing they were militants preparing to attack.
According to the American military, the troops and American planes fired back, killing four men and two women. The Americans also arrested 15 “suspected terrorists,” but 12 have been released.