23 killed in Iraq violence: Car bomber attacks Najaf
NAJAF, Feb 21: Insurgents launched bloody attacks in several Iraqi cities on Wednesday, killing more than 23 people as Britain and Denmark announced they would begin withdrawing their troops.
In the worst single assault, a suicide car bomber struck in the holy city of Najaf, detonating his explosives as a police patrol stopped him from entering the old city that is home to the revered Imam Ali Mausoleum.
Najaf's governor, Assaad Abu Gilel, said seven police, three women and three children were killed in the blast, which ripped apart the bomber's Chevrolet Caprice and sprayed deadly shrapnel down a busy street.
A medic said the city's Al-Hakim hospital was treating 34 wounded.
A US army Black Hawk transport helicopter, meanwhile, made what a military spokesman described as a “hard landing” north of Baghdad.
“Initial reports are that there were nine people on board. An accompanying helicopter has already landed and picked those personnel up. They're all OK,” Major General William Caldwell told reporters.
Seven US helicopters, including two operated by a private security firm, have been lost in Iraq in recent weeks. Most were shot down, sparking speculation that insurgents are using new tactics or weapons.
Caldwell said the cause of Wednesday's emergency was not yet clear.
In Baghdad, more than 90,000 Iraqi and US troops are carrying out a large-scale security operation to quell a year-long bout of bloodletting between rival Sunni and Shiite factions.
Brigadier General Qassim Atta al-Mussawi, spokesman for the operation, said Iraqi and US forces have killed 42 “terrorists” and arrested 246 others in the week since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki officially launched the plan.
He said eight foreign Arab nationals had also been detained during sweeps of the capital and that six Iraqi soldiers had died in the operation so far.
“There has been a significant reduction in sectarian incidents and in extra-judicial killings in Baghdad because the Iraqi people have chosen restraint rather than retribution,” Caldwell said.
Despite the plan, however, violence continued in Baghdad.
A tanker truck carrying chlorine exploded in the west of the city, killing two people, wounding seven and leaving 35 others sick from the effects of the toxic gas, security and medical sources said.
Meanwhile, militia fighters fired mortars at the central Baghdad district of Bayaa, killing three civilians and wounding 10 more, while the bodies of six murder victims were discovered in the Ghazaliya neighbourhood, police said.
A car bomb also exploded in Bayaa, killing at least two bystanders, and a roadside booby-trap detonated next to a police patrol, killing a civilian. Yet another car bomb exploded in the district of Sadr City, killing three people and wounding six more, a defence official said.
In the southern province of Muthanna, Mohammed Hanun, the deputy head of the provincial council, was shot dead, a security official said.—AFP
