IRAQ: Roadside blast kills 16 civilians in Iraq
Posted by warvictims on March 11, 2008
Roadside blast kills 16 civilians in Iraq
USA TODAY
BAGHDAD (AP) — A roadside bomb hit a bus traveling in southern Iraq on Tuesday killing at least 16 civilians on board, police said.
The bus was traveling from Najaf to Basra, according to a Nasiriyah policeman speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information. At least 22 others were wounded in the attack that took place about 50 miles south of Nasiriyah, which sits 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. Police said five women and three children were among those killed.
The bus attack was the bloodiest in a string of bombings and shootings across Iraq that left, in all, 30 people dead.
Five people were killed when a suicide bomber in a truck laden with explosives detonated at a checkpoint near the headquarters of the Awakening Council in Duluiyah, 45 miles north of Baghdad, local police said. Another 13 people were injured in the blast.
Awakening councils are made up of Sunni fighters who have accepted U.S. backing to switch allegiances and fight al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Also on Tuesday, gunmen sprayed another bus with machine gun fire shortly after it hit a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad. One person was killed and four others were wounded in that attack, police said. The bomb was apparently targeting a nearby police patrol.
Meanwhile in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, police arrested 30 people after clashes with the Mahdi Army left eight dead and another 14 people injured.
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