Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Özeti
Adam Schreck
19 March 2013
Bombs kill at least 56 in Iraq on tenth
anniversary of invasion
Awave of bombings tore through
Baghdad this morning, killing at least
57 people in a spasm of violence on the
eve of the 10th anniversary of the US-led
invasion.
The attacks show how dangerous and unstable
Iraq remains a decade after the war
— a country where sectarian violence can
explode at any time. And though attacks
have ebbed since the peak of the insurgency
in 2006 and 2007, tensions simmer
and militants remain a potent threat to
Iraq's security forces.
Today's attacks were mostly by car bombs
and targeted mainly Shiite areas, small
restaurants, day laborers and bus stops in
the Iraqi capital and nearby towns over a
span of more than two hours.
Along with 56 killed, over 200 people were
wounded in the attacks, officials said.
The bombings came 10 years to the day
that Washington announced the start of
the invasion on March 19, 2003 — though
by that time it was already the following
morning in Iraq.
Also today, Iraq's Cabinet decided to postpone
upcoming provincial elections in two
provinces dominated by the country's
minority Sunnis for up to six months. The
decision followed requests from the political
blocs in the provinces, according to the
prime minister's spokesman, Ali al-
Moussawi.
The two provinces affected, Anbar and
Ninevah, have been at the center of the
nearly three-month-long protests against
Iraq's Shiite-led government. Provincial
elections were scheduled for April 20.
One of the deadliest of today's attacks
struck close to one of the main gates to the
heavily-fortified Green Zone, which
houses major government offices and the
embassies of several countries, including
the United States and Britain. That blast
outside a restaurant killed six people,
including two soldiers, and wounded more
than 15. Thick black smoke could be seen
rising from the area as ambulances raced
to the scene.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility
for the blasts, but the attacks bore
hallmarks of al-Qa'ida in Iraq. The terror
group favors spectacular, coordinated
bombings intended to undermine public
confidence in the Shiite-led government.
Police and hospital officials who provided
accounts of the days' bloodshed reported
the most casualties from a car bombing
near the Ministry of Labor and Social
Affairs in Baghdad's eastern Qahira neighborhood
at around 10 am. That blast killed
seven people and wounded 21.
The officials provide casualty numbers on
condition of anonymity because they were
not authorized to release the information
to journalists.
The violence started at around 8 am, when
a bomb exploded outside a popular restaurant
in Baghdad's Mashtal neighborhood,
killing four people and wounding 15. It
blew out the eatery's windows and left
several cars mangled in the blood-streaked
street.
Minutes later, two day laborers were killed
and eight were wounded when a roadside
bomb hit the place where they gather
every day in an area of New Baghdad.
In the poor Shiite neighborhood of Sadr
City, a bomb stuck to the underside of a
minibus killed three commuters and
wounded seven people. Another car bomb
exploded in a commercial street in the
same area, killing two people and wounding
11, and yet another bomb struck a
police patrol in the neighborhood, killing
five people and wounding 13.
Hussein Abdul-Khaliq, a government
employee who lives in Sadr city, said he
heard the explosion and went out to find
the minibus on fire.
“We helped take some trapped women
and children from outside the burning bus
before the arrival of the rescue teams. Our
clothes were covered with blood as we
tried to rescue the trapped people or to
move out the bodies,” he said.
“Today's attacks are new proof that the
politicians and security officials are a huge
failure,” he said.
Other attacks struck the largely Shiite
neighborhoods of Hussainiyah,
Zafarniyah, Shula and Utaifiya, as well as
the Sunni district of Tarmiyah.
Just outside the capital, a mortar shell
landed near a clinic in the town of Taji,
killing two people and wounding five. And
about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of
Baghdad, in Iskandiriyah, a car bomb
exploded near a bus stop, killing five people
and wounding 20.
Today's attacks came a day after insurgents
killed nine people, including a bombing
by a suicide attacker who killed five
when he drove an explosives-laden car
into a checkpoint in the central Iraqi town
of Balad Ruz.
Al-Qa'ida's Iraq arm, which operates
under the name the Islamic State of Iraq,
has sought to reassert its presence in
recent weeks.
Last week, the group claimed responsibility
for a highly coordinated attack earlier
this month in far western Iraq that killed
nine Iraqis and 51 Syrian soldiers who had
sought temporary refuge in the country.
And on Sunday, al-Qa'ida's Iraq branch
took responsibility for a brazen and again
highly coordinated raid on the Justice
Ministry in downtown Baghdad last week.
The attack, involving car bombs and gunmen
disguised as police, killed at least 24
people. ❍
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