Seven killed in attack at Baghdad morgue

FE Team | Published: September 19, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

BAGHDAD, Sept 18 (AFP): even people were killed when rebels blew up a car bomb and fired a mortar on Tuesday in the car park of Baghdad's main morgue as it was crowded with people searching for relatives, officials said.
The bomb exploded at around 9:30 am (0530 GMT) followed minutes later by the mortar attack, security officials said.
The morgue, behind the ministry of health building in central Baghdad's Babel Muaddam neighbourhood, was at the time filled with people hunting for missing relatives-victims of relentless sectarian violence in the Iraqi capital.
Insurgents have stepped up attacks in and around Baghdad since the start of Ramadan, a period of increased violence in Iraq since the US-led 2003 March invasion of the country.
Al-Qaeda at the weekend warned of a bloody Ramadan period in Iraq.
Meanwhile: Pentagon reported to Congress Monday that political progress in Iraq remains stalled despite a surge in US forces, and warned that improvements in security were not enough to win the war.
The quarterly report to Congress on stability and security in Iraq said the surge had led to improvements in security, including a drop in sectarian killing and civilian casualties and a downward trend in attacks.
But it said, "Improved security and stability is not enough to win the counterinsurgency. Political progress must also be achieved to reinforce and complement progress in securing the Iraqi population."
"There has been little national-level political progress in passing key legislation and implementing government reform," it said.
It said efforts to seek consensus "remain complicated by continued sectarian divisions and violence that exacerbates those divisions."
The report said the most promising political developments were at the local level, where the US military is pursuing a so-called "bottom up" approach to reconciliation with Sunni insurgents disenchanted with Al-Qaeda.
The findings generally tracked with presentations to Congress last week by General David Petraeus, who proposed a gradual drawdown of US surge forces by July 2008 on the strength of the improved security.