IRAQ: Suicide Bomber Kills 6 in Iraqi City
Posted by warvictims on July 16, 2009
By SAM DAGHER
BAGHDAD — At least six people were killed and 25 wounded when a suicide truck bomber struck Wednesday near a police checkpoint in the city of Ramadi west of Baghdad, according to local officials.
The attack happened during the morning rush in the eastern part of Ramadi, the seat of Anbar Province, according to a police official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the attack with the news media. He said four of the dead were civilians and two were traffic police officers. Anbar’s governor, Qassim Abed, who was reached by telephone, confirmed the attack but gave a death toll of five. He said the bomber set off the explosives just before reaching the checkpoint.
Wednesday’s attack happened in the same spot where Anbar’s police chief was wounded last month in a suicide car bombing aimed at his convoy. The attack Wednesday came less than two days after the former commander and deputy police chief in Falluja, the other major city in Anbar, were arrested by a security force sent from Baghdad, according to the current deputy police chief, Col. Daoud Salman. It was not immediately clear why they were arrested, but before his detention, the former Falluja police chief, Col. Faisal Ismail, had been transferred to the command of Anbar’s highway protection force.
Anbar, a predominantly Sunni Arab province, was an insurgent stronghold before American-backed tribes largely drove out Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a primarily Iraqi group with some foreign leadership. But a spate of deadly attacks against Iraqi forces and American reconstruction teams, especially in Falluja, have renewed concerns that insurgent groups may be regrouping as the American military presence and influence wanes in Anbar.
Many in Anbar believe feuds among tribal leaders and tensions between the tribal-led coalition that came to power after January’s provincial elections and the Islamic Party, which was previously in charge, have created openings for insurgents.
The bulk of the American troops that remain in Anbar are garrisoned at Al Assad desert air base. There are small contingents still stationed on the outskirts of Ramadi and Falluja, guarding State Department officials and reconstruction teams and advising Iraqi forces.
An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Ramadi, Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/world/middleeast/16iraq.html?ref=world
This entry was posted on July 16, 2009 at 8:41 am and is filed under Actors, Bomb, Car Bomb, Civilian Casualties, Country, Iraq, Middle-East, Police, Region, Suicide Bomb, Tactics, Targeted Death, Targeted Injury, Terrorists, Type of Harm. Tagged: Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, anbar province, Civilian Casualties, civilian wounded, civiliand deaths, Iraq, police checkpoint, Ramadi, Suicide Bomb, truck bomb. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
