BAGHDAD, June 19: A suspected Al Qaeda bomber killed 78 people when he rammed a truck into a mosque in Baghdad on Tuesday, just hours after 10,000 US troops began an offensive against the group north of the capital.
One witness said the bomber drove his truck into the Khilani mosque in Baghdad, destroying one wall and wrecking part of the building’s interior. The mosque’s turquoise dome appeared to have suffered little damage.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed the attacks on “Saddamists and Takfiris”, a term commonly used by Iraqi officials to describe Al Qaeda. “It shows (their) determination to ignite sectarian violence,” Maliki said in a statement.
Police said 78 people had been killed, including at least nine women, and 224 others were wounded. Rescuers dragged bodies from the mosque while the charred remains of others could be seen in burned out minibuses around a nearby traffic circle.
“Iraqis in this country are being killed every day. No one takes care of them,” shouted one old man at the scene.
Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier-General Qassim Moussawi said the truck had been loaded with gas canisters and half a ton of explosives.
The explosion followed a relatively quiet period in Baghdad after a four-day curfew was imposed last week in the wake of an attack on a revered shrine in Samarra that was also blamed on Al Qaeda.
Militants also fired a barrage of mortar bombs at Baghdad’s Green Zone in one of the heaviest attacks in weeks on the compound that houses the US embassy and government offices.
The US embassy said no US citizens were killed or wounded in the attack just before sundown. There was no other information about possible casualties.
OPERATION ARROWHEAD RIPPER: The US military said 22 militants were killed in the early hours of the offensive against Al Qaeda around Baquba. Diyala province is a stronghold of the group but it also has significant Shia and Kurdish populations. “The end state is to destroy the Al Qaeda influences in this province and eliminate their threat against the people,” Brigadier-General Mick Bednarek, deputy commanding general, operations, 25th Infantry Division, said in a statement.The statement said about 10,000 soldiers, backed by attack helicopters, close air support and armoured fighting vehicles were taking part in Operation Arrowhead Ripper.
“It’s certainly one of the largest since the end of ground operations in 2003,” US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver told Reuters when asked to describe the significance of the operation.
Residents in Baquba said heavy and continual explosions echoed around the city since before dawn. Baquba, 65km north of Baghdad, was under total curfew, they added.—Reuters
BAGHDAD, June 19: A suspected Al Qaeda bomber killed 78 people when he rammed a truck into a mosque in Baghdad on Tuesday, just hours after 10,000 US troops began an offensive against the group north of the capital.
