Friday, August 07, 2009 MOSUL: A car bomb killed at least 20 people in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul on Friday as a wave of attacks targeting pilgrims left four people dead in the capital Baghdad. "Twenty people were killed and 61 others were injured when a car bomb exploded as the faithful were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers," a police official said requesting anonymity. The mosque targeted is a one used by members of the Turkmen minority in the mainly Sunni Muslim city, the police official said. He said worshippers were walking to an annexe of the mosque to offer condolences when the bombers detonated the explosives which had been hidden in a car parked nearby. Dr Hikmat Sobhi of Mosul's Medical City hospital said the emergency room had received the bodies of 20 dead and was treating 61 wounded, some of them for serious injuries. The attack follows a bombing in Mosul late on Thursday in which two Christian women were wounded. The city -- Iraq's second largest -- has remained the scene of frequent attacks despite a marked decline in violence elsewhere in the country. US commanders have said that it is the last urban bastion in Iraq of loyalists of Al-Qaeda. The Mosul bombing came as a string of attacks in the capital targeted people returning from the central shrine city of Karbala after marking a key religious occasion, an interior ministry official said. A roadside bomb at the entrance to the sprawling Baghdad district of Sadr City ripped through a bus, killing three pilgrims and wounding eight as they returned from the shrine city of Karbala in central Iraq, the official said. The bombers struck at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT), the official, who requested anonymity, said. "I was inside my house when we heard an explosion, and all the windows of my house shattered," local trader Abu Mohammed said. "The inside of the bus was covered in blood. The police took the wounded to Sadr City's hospital for treatment," he added. Local resident Abbas Jumaa, 27, said, "I saw women and old men, I don't know why they attacked them. "They are only pilgrims and they don't carry guns. So why would anyone attack them?" A second bombing at the edge of Sadr City an hour later wounded another five people, also travelling in a minibus from Karbala, 100 kilometres (60 miles), south of the capital. One person was killed and five wounded in a separate roadside bombing at around the same time on a minibus carrying pilgrims in the Zayune neighbourhood of central Baghdad, the official said. Roads to and from Karbala have been crowded with pilgrims in vehicles or on foot this week as Muslims commemorate the birth of the Twelfth Imam, a disappeared ninth century Muslim leader revered as a coming messiah. Pilgrims in the holy city held candle-lighting ceremonies from midnight to dawn at a mosque built on a site said to be the last place visited by the Mahdi before his disappearance. Streets in the city cleared out in the early hours of the morning with no reports of any violence. Violence in Iraq has dropped off markedly in recent months, but attacks against security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, Mosul and the ethnically divided northern oil city of Kirkuk. The number of violent deaths in Iraq fell by a third from the June figure of 437 to 275 in July, the first month local forces have been in charge of security in urban areas since the US-led invasion of 2003. The figure in May was 155, the lowest of any month since the invasion.
Friday, August 07, 2009 MOSUL: A car bomb killed at least 20 people in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul on Friday as a wave of attacks targeting pilgrims left four people dead in the capital Baghdad. "Twenty people were killed and 61 others were injured when a car bomb exploded as the faithful were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers," a police official said requesting anonymity. The mosque targeted is a one used by members of the Turkmen minority in the mainly Sunni Muslim city, the police official said. He said worshippers were walking to an annexe of the mosque to offer condolences when the bombers detonated the explosives which had been hidden in a car parked nearby. Dr Hikmat Sobhi of Mosul's Medical City hospital said the emergency room had received the bodies of 20 dead and was treating 61 wounded, some of them for serious injuries. The attack follows a bombing in Mosul late on Thursday in which two Christian women were wounded. The city -- Iraq's second largest -- has remained the scene of frequent attacks despite a marked decline in violence elsewhere in the country. US commanders have said that it is the last urban bastion in Iraq of loyalists of Al-Qaeda. The Mosul bombing came as a string of attacks in the capital targeted people returning from the central shrine city of Karbala after marking a key religious occasion, an interior ministry official said. A roadside bomb at the entrance to the sprawling Baghdad district of Sadr City ripped through a bus, killing three pilgrims and wounding eight as they returned from the shrine city of Karbala in central Iraq, the official said. The bombers struck at around 9:00 am (0600 GMT), the official, who requested anonymity, said. "I was inside my house when we heard an explosion, and all the windows of my house shattered," local trader Abu Mohammed said. "The inside of the bus was covered in blood. The police took the wounded to Sadr City's hospital for treatment," he added. Local resident Abbas Jumaa, 27, said, "I saw women and old men, I don't know why they attacked them. "They are only pilgrims and they don't carry guns. So why would anyone attack them?" A second bombing at the edge of Sadr City an hour later wounded another five people, also travelling in a minibus from Karbala, 100 kilometres (60 miles), south of the capital. One person was killed and five wounded in a separate roadside bombing at around the same time on a minibus carrying pilgrims in the Zayune neighbourhood of central Baghdad, the official said. Roads to and from Karbala have been crowded with pilgrims in vehicles or on foot this week as Muslims commemorate the birth of the Twelfth Imam, a disappeared ninth century Muslim leader revered as a coming messiah. Pilgrims in the holy city held candle-lighting ceremonies from midnight to dawn at a mosque built on a site said to be the last place visited by the Mahdi before his disappearance. Streets in the city cleared out in the early hours of the morning with no reports of any violence. Violence in Iraq has dropped off markedly in recent months, but attacks against security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, Mosul and the ethnically divided northern oil city of Kirkuk. The number of violent deaths in Iraq fell by a third from the June figure of 437 to 275 in July, the first month local forces have been in charge of security in urban areas since the US-led invasion of 2003. The figure in May was 155, the lowest of any month since the invasion.
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