BAGHDAD, May 16: A van bomb was detonated in a crowded Iraqi market, police said on Wednesday, as militants clashed with police and the United States military hunted for three kidnapped personnel.
The bomb attack ripped through an area northeast of Baghdad late on Tuesday, killing at least 32 civilians and wounding 65 more, according to security and municipal officials.
Iraqi officials said the bomb had been packed with tanks of chlorine gas, but the US military said a team sent to the scene could not confirm this.
In Nasiriyah, fighters loyal to Moqtada Al Sadr engaged in clashes with security forces that left two soldiers, nine civilians and the commander of the local anti-terrorism unit dead.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon released details of seven soldiers killed or kidnapped in Iraq when Al Qaeda wiped out their patrol on Saturday, as thousands of American troops searched for their missing comrades.A statement said a unit from the Second Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division was deployed in Al Taqa, south of Baghdad, on Saturday when it was attacked with explosives and automatic fire.
Al Qaeda in Iraq has boasted of carrying out the ambush, in which four soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were killed and three Americans abducted, and a massive search operation has been under way for four days.
“We’re sure praying our soldiers are alive and at this point we’ve no evidence indicating otherwise,” said US military spokesman Maj-Gen William Caldwell at a weekly news briefing.
American forces had divided the region around Al Taqa into 35 search blocks and had been through 32 of them, some of them more than once, while questioning around 600 local people and detaining 11 suspects, he said.
So far, one soldier had been wounded during the search, he added.
The military said leaflets had been dropped around the area near Mahmudiyah.
Since Saturday’s attack, more than 4,000 US troops backed by jets, dogs, helicopters and spy satellites have been scouring the district, in defiance of an Al Qaeda threat to harm the captives if the search continues.
Al Qaeda has released a message mocking the search and threatening to harm the captives unless it is called off.
Tuesday’s van bomb exploded in a market in Abu Saydah in Diyala.
“A small van with gas canisters exploded in a crowded market, there were many people dead at the scene,” said Capt Sadiq Mohammed. Other officials spoke of 32 dead and 65 wounded.
Interior Ministry Operations Director Brig-Gen Abdel Karim Khalaf confirmed that there had been an explosion followed by two mortar attacks on Abu Saydah.
The US command in southern Iraq told AFP that troops dispatched to the scene were investigating but that initial reports could not confirm claims that chlorine gas was used.
In Nasiriyah, Mahdi Army militia fought with Iraqi security forces in clashes that left 12 people dead.
“The clashes have killed two Iraqi soldiers and nine civilians,” said Hadi Badr, the city's top public health official, adding that 91 policemen, soldiers and civilians had been wounded.
Later, Mr Badr and police sources added that the commander of the city's police anti-terror squad, Lt-Col Jawad Abdel Kadhim, was among the dead.
He said two Mahdi Army fighters received treatment in the local hospital, but that many others were taken to other locations.
The fighting broke out late on Tuesday when police arrested two members of the militia and accused them of targeting US-led and Iraqi forces with makeshift bombs and mortars, security officials said.
A delegation from the Mahdi Army demanded that police release the two men, but the demand was turned down, sparking the battle.
Elsewhere in the country, seven people were killed in attacks.
In the capital, six people were wounded by mortar or rocket fire as the administrative and diplomatic compound came under attack for a second day in a row, US embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said.—AFP
