Bombing kills 4 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad (AP) Updated: 2005-11-26 17:58
A car bomb exploded near a two-car convoy carrying foreigners through central
Baghdad on Saturday, killing four Iraqi civilians, police said.
No one in the convoy was hurt, but one of the armored cars was damaged and
removed by U.S. forces, Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said. The foreigners were not
immediately identified.
In northwestern Baghdad on Friday, 200 people carrying banners and chanting
slogans gathered at a mosque to demand the resignation of the defense minister.
They were angered by the death of Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem, a Sunni Arab
sheik killed along with three of his sons and his son-in-law by gunmen who broke
into his home on Wednesday.
Relatives said the men were wearing Iraqi army uniforms and that another of
al-Hemaiyem's sons was killed by men in uniform last month.
A spokesman for the interior ministry denied that government forces were
involved.
Iraqi policemen look at the burning wreckage
of a car bomb that exploded near a two-car convoy carrying foreigners
through central Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Nov. 26, 2005, killing four Iraqi
civilians. [AP] | A statement from the little-known Partisans of the Sunni claimed it carried
out a car bombing Thursday in the mostly Shiite city of Hillah in retaliation
for the slaying of al-Hemaiyem and other attacks against Sunni Arabs. Eleven
people were killed and 17 were wounded.
"We have warned the (Shiites) to stop assassinations and detentions and
torture," the statement posted Friday on an Islamist Web site said. "You should
know, your blood is no more dear than ours. You kill our men, we kill yours. You
kill our sheiks, we kill yours. You started this war."
An interior ministry official said security forces were aware of the
Partisans group, which has been active in the area south of Baghdad for months.
A videotape posted on the Internet — allegedly by al-Qaida in Iraq —
purportedly showed how the terror group planned and carried out the Oct. 24
triple suicide attack against the Palestine and Sheraton hotels, in which 17
people were killed.
A narrator said the Palestine — headquarters of The Associated Press, Fox
News and others — was occupied "by foreign journalists and security companies"
but indicated the Sheraton was the main target because it housed "assassination
teams, intelligence groups" and American soldiers.
The videotape's authenticity could not be verified but it appeared on an
Islamic Web site known for publishing messages from militant groups.
Also Friday, a prosecutor in Saddam's trial said a key witness in the case
has died of cancer but his testimony already had been taped for presentation in
the proceedings, which are set to resume Monday.
Wadah Ismael al-Sheik died Oct. 27, four days after talking to court
officials, said Jaafar al-Mousawi, the main prosecutor. Al-Sheik was a senior
Iraqi intelligence officer at the time of the Dujail massacre in 1982 that
Saddam and seven other co-defendants are charged with.
If convicted, Saddam and the others could face the death penalty for their
role in the killing of nearly 150 people from the mainly Shiite town north of
Baghdad after a failed assassination attempt.
The Saddam trial resumes following a five-week recess granted by the court to
give the defense time to study the evidence. The trial could raise sectarian
tensions ahead of the Dec. 15 national elections. Saddam's regime was dominated
by Sunnis, and the trial involves the deaths of Shiites.
More than 250 people have been killed since Nov. 18 in car bombings and
suicide attacks against Shiite targets.
U.S. officials hope that a big Sunni turnout will encourage members of the
community to turn away from the insurgency, hastening the day when American and
other international troops can go home. Sunnis form about 20 percent of Iraq's
27 million people but are the backbone of the insurgency.
|