Bomb attacks kill 36 Iraqis
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
MOSUL, Iraq, Aug 6 (AFP): Bomb attacks killed 36 Iraqis today as a suicide bomber blew up a truck packed with explosives in a northern Shiite village and a booby trap killed nine people in a Baghdad minibus queue.
The truck bomber detonated his deadly charge in Al-Quba, killing at least 28 people and wounding another 50, eight of them seriously, said provincial police spokesman Brigadier General Abdulkarim Khalaf al-Juburi.
The reported death toll climbed rapidly through the morning as the village is 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the much larger town of Tal Afar and the nearest emergency services.
As thousands of US and Iraqi security forces focus on pushing insurgents out of Baghdad and other flashpoint cities under a five-month-old security plan, militants have increasingly resorted to attacks in villages and rural areas.
In the capital, a roadside bomb killed nine Iraqis, ripping through an unofficial stop for one of the battered minibuses used by thousands of people in the city, security and medical officials said.
The device, hidden on the side of the road, blew up after a minibus stopped to collect waiting passengers in the Diyala Bridge neighbourhood in the southern suburbs, security officials said.
Shrapnel sprayed the area as Iraqis got on and off the minibus shortly before the main rush hour, and as others stood waiting for a different line.
The Al-Zafaraniyah hospital said nine people were killed, including a woman, and eight wounded were brought in with mainly burns injuries.
Today's violence came as Iranian and US officials held security talks in Baghdad in a bid to ease the violent insurgency in war-torn Iraq that has put the two arch-foes at loggerheads.
The truck bomber detonated his deadly charge in Al-Quba, killing at least 28 people and wounding another 50, eight of them seriously, said provincial police spokesman Brigadier General Abdulkarim Khalaf al-Juburi.
The reported death toll climbed rapidly through the morning as the village is 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the much larger town of Tal Afar and the nearest emergency services.
As thousands of US and Iraqi security forces focus on pushing insurgents out of Baghdad and other flashpoint cities under a five-month-old security plan, militants have increasingly resorted to attacks in villages and rural areas.
In the capital, a roadside bomb killed nine Iraqis, ripping through an unofficial stop for one of the battered minibuses used by thousands of people in the city, security and medical officials said.
The device, hidden on the side of the road, blew up after a minibus stopped to collect waiting passengers in the Diyala Bridge neighbourhood in the southern suburbs, security officials said.
Shrapnel sprayed the area as Iraqis got on and off the minibus shortly before the main rush hour, and as others stood waiting for a different line.
The Al-Zafaraniyah hospital said nine people were killed, including a woman, and eight wounded were brought in with mainly burns injuries.
Today's violence came as Iranian and US officials held security talks in Baghdad in a bid to ease the violent insurgency in war-torn Iraq that has put the two arch-foes at loggerheads.