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Seattle Post-Intelligencer
October 16, 2007 Car bomb blamed on al-Qaida kills 6 in Baghdad
By Kim Gamel, Associated Press
BAGHDAD -- Suspected Shiite militiamen hit military bases with mortar rounds and sprayed machine-gun fire at a Polish helicopter Monday, setting off fierce fighting that killed at least four civilians in a volatile area south of Baghdad.
It was the latest flare-up of internal Shiite feuds that threaten to destabilize the oil-rich southern region and undermine U.S. progress against al-Qaida in Iraq elsewhere in the country.
U.S. commanders have cited major progress in curtailing al-Qaida operations during an 8-month-old security operation, but they have been unable to stop the car bombings and suicide attacks usually attributed to the group.
In the latest such attack, an explosives-laden car blew up in western Baghdad's religiously mixed Harthiyah neighborhood Monday night, killing at least six people and wounding 25, police said. Most of the victims were among families on their way home after spending the day in a nearby amusement park for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
The vehicle apparently was left on a side street to avoid a parking ban on the capital's main streets designed to prevent such bombings.
A suicide car bomber also targeted a Sunni Arab group that has joined forces with the U.S. against al-Qaida around Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. The blast tore through a checkpoint near the Salahuddin Revival Council's office in Yathreb village, just outside the city, killing at least six police officers and wounding eight people, including bystanders, police said.
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office blamed U.S. forces for the clashes in Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad. It also claimed civilians were targeted by aircraft, the latest in a series of allegations that innocent Iraqis have lost their lives unnecessarily at the hands of U.S. troops and private security contractors.
The U.S. military and allied Polish forces in the area said coalition and Iraqi security troops fought back after a base was hit by mortar shells and small-arms fire that killed four civilians and wounded 12. The attackers escaped to a wooded area near the base, the military said.
Lt. Col. Wlodzimierz Glogowski, spokesman for the Polish force in Diwaniyah, said the civilian casualties were caused by the attackers' mortar shells, not the coalition's fire. He also said a Polish helicopter came under machine-gun fire and two Polish soldiers were slightly wounded.
Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, has recently been the scene of frequent clashes between rival Shiite factions competing for influence in the oil-rich southern region.
Roadside bombs killed two southern provincial governors in August, including the governor of the Qadisiyah province of which Diwaniyah is the capital. More than 50 people also were killed in clashes during a Shiite pilgrimage in Karbala.
In other violence Monday, a second Iraqi journalist in as many days was killed in an ambush that wounded his two security guards, police and relatives said. Dhi Abdul-Razak al-Dibo, 32, a freelance reporter, was attacked by gunmen while he was driving with his guards near Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad.
The attack occurred a day after The Washington Post reported that Salih Saif Aldin, one of its Iraqi correspondents, had been shot to death while on assignment in Baghdad.
October 16, 2007 Car bomb blamed on al-Qaida kills 6 in Baghdad
By Kim Gamel, Associated Press
BAGHDAD -- Suspected Shiite militiamen hit military bases with mortar rounds and sprayed machine-gun fire at a Polish helicopter Monday, setting off fierce fighting that killed at least four civilians in a volatile area south of Baghdad.
It was the latest flare-up of internal Shiite feuds that threaten to destabilize the oil-rich southern region and undermine U.S. progress against al-Qaida in Iraq elsewhere in the country.
U.S. commanders have cited major progress in curtailing al-Qaida operations during an 8-month-old security operation, but they have been unable to stop the car bombings and suicide attacks usually attributed to the group.
In the latest such attack, an explosives-laden car blew up in western Baghdad's religiously mixed Harthiyah neighborhood Monday night, killing at least six people and wounding 25, police said. Most of the victims were among families on their way home after spending the day in a nearby amusement park for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
The vehicle apparently was left on a side street to avoid a parking ban on the capital's main streets designed to prevent such bombings.
A suicide car bomber also targeted a Sunni Arab group that has joined forces with the U.S. against al-Qaida around Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. The blast tore through a checkpoint near the Salahuddin Revival Council's office in Yathreb village, just outside the city, killing at least six police officers and wounding eight people, including bystanders, police said.
Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's office blamed U.S. forces for the clashes in Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad. It also claimed civilians were targeted by aircraft, the latest in a series of allegations that innocent Iraqis have lost their lives unnecessarily at the hands of U.S. troops and private security contractors.
The U.S. military and allied Polish forces in the area said coalition and Iraqi security troops fought back after a base was hit by mortar shells and small-arms fire that killed four civilians and wounded 12. The attackers escaped to a wooded area near the base, the military said.
Lt. Col. Wlodzimierz Glogowski, spokesman for the Polish force in Diwaniyah, said the civilian casualties were caused by the attackers' mortar shells, not the coalition's fire. He also said a Polish helicopter came under machine-gun fire and two Polish soldiers were slightly wounded.
Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, has recently been the scene of frequent clashes between rival Shiite factions competing for influence in the oil-rich southern region.
Roadside bombs killed two southern provincial governors in August, including the governor of the Qadisiyah province of which Diwaniyah is the capital. More than 50 people also were killed in clashes during a Shiite pilgrimage in Karbala.
In other violence Monday, a second Iraqi journalist in as many days was killed in an ambush that wounded his two security guards, police and relatives said. Dhi Abdul-Razak al-Dibo, 32, a freelance reporter, was attacked by gunmen while he was driving with his guards near Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad.
The attack occurred a day after The Washington Post reported that Salih Saif Aldin, one of its Iraqi correspondents, had been shot to death while on assignment in Baghdad.