Car bomb kills 6 in Baghdad [Archive]

seruriermarshal

05-06-2004, 06:36 AM

2 U.S. Soldiers Killed, 2 Wounded in Iraq

7 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two U.S. soldiers were killed and two were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad, the U.S. command said Thursday.

A statement said the explosion occurred just before midnight Wednesday but gave no further details.

A total of 761 U.S. service members have died since President Bush (news - web sites) launched the invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) in March 2003. Of those, 554 died as a result of hostile action.

Car bomb kills one US soldier and six Iraqis outside US coalition HQ
22 minutes ago Add Mideast - AFP to My Yahoo!

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A car bombing killed six Iraqis and one US soldier by a Baghdad bridge outside the sprawling headquarters of the US-led coalition in Iraq (news - web sites) at the peak of the morning rush hour.

The biggest attack in the capital in almost two months came as a US prison scandal threatened to permanently tarnish America's image in Iraq.

Pictures of US soldier abusing and ******ly humiliating Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad prompted US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) to denounce the misdeeds in exclusive interviews with Arab television Wednesday night.

But Bush's message appeared to fall on deaf ears as Iraqis expressed frustration over the violence and slow progress since the US-led coalition invaded Iraq more than a year ago.

In the latest attack, insurgents blew up a car at 7:28 am (0300 GMT) Thursday as civilians were queuing in their cars to enter the 14th of July Bridge, used only by the military and employees of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

Witnesses said a suicide bomber sped his car around a roundabout outside a double set of blast walls where contractors were lining up to cross the bridge.

"We saw a car on fire. We think it was a car bomb. There were two bodies covered in sheets," said Mohammed Talum, who lives close to the 14th of July Bridge, a main entrance to the heavily-fortified US-led coalition headquarters in the capital.

A senior US military officer at the bridge said six Iraqis were killed in the attack, while another officer reported the blast claimed the life of one US soldier and wounded two others.

Hospitals reported 13 Iraqis wounded, four of them seriously injured.

The death toll was expected to rise, officers said at the scene.

Flames and black smoke engulfed several cars in the queue on the heavily-fortified bridge as soldiers in armoured Humvees and police roped off the area.

Electrician Shahab Ahmad, 32, was the third car in line for the bridge when the blast happened behind him, shattering his car windows.

"The doors of my car were jammed shut and the roof had collapsed so I had to scramble out the back window," Ahmad said, with a crusty red gash on his neck and cuts dotting his arm.

"I tried to help the people in the car behind me. There were two of them. But they were already dead.

Lieutenant Maki Khals, a traffic policeman, raced up to the bridge in the moments after the blast.

"I saw the suicide bomber had exploded near to the entrance of the Green Zone," Khals said.

"I saw contractors who were burnt inside their cars. There were 14 cars destroyed. I saw workers on the two sides of the bridge lying there and three bodies had not been carried away."

At Baghdad's Al-Kindi hospital, doctors reported three wounded.

"I was driving near the bridge when I felt a strong explosion. I woke up in the hospital," 35-year-old taxi driver Ali Ahmed Hassun said as medics bandaged his bleeding neck and hand.

The attack was similar to a blast which killed 24 people at another entrance to the Green Zone on January 17.

A few hours later a large explosion from the other side of the Tigris river was heard, but the cause was not immediately known.

The last car bomb attack in Baghdad was at the Mount Lebanon Hotel on March 17, killing seven people.

Coalition officials have warned of "big-bang" attacks as the June 30 end-date for the US-led occupation approaches and the spiraling violence has grounded many million-dollar reconstruction projects to a halt.

The blast came ahead of the imminent arrival in Iraq of UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, tasked by the coalition with supervising the selection of an interim Iraqi government.

Hours before the attack, Baghdadis shrugged off US President George W. Bush's direct appeal to the Arab world over the prison scandal at Abu Ghraib prison.

Bush, whose adminstration has been criticised for failing to take the affair seriously enough, called the abuse of prisoners "abhorrent", but his message did not appear to convince anyone.

"I ask Bush, what do the words freedom and democracy mean to you?" asked Adil Shaaban Muhsin, 32, after listening in to Bush's interview on Al-Arabiya television above the din of a crowded and smoky Baghdad cafe.

"Saddam was oppressing us, you, Mr Bush, are doing more than that. Mr Bush did not seem to be at all truthful."

The bloodshed in Baghdad coincides with major clashes between US forces and the militia of Shiite radical cleric Moqtada Sadr in southern Iraq.

Three US soldiers were killed during clashes with Sadr's Mehdi Army in the southern Iraqi city of Diwaniya late Tuesday, the coalition said.

The three soldiers were killed in operations as US-led forces upped the pressure on the cleric wanted by the coalition for the murder of a rival cleric last year.

More than 30 people were killed in battles that erupted Tuesday and flared again Wednesday across Diwaniya and the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, coalition and Iraqi sources said.

Sadr has been holed up in Najaf where he has vowed to lead his followers to martyrdom, but has also embarked on tentative moves to try to strike a deal with the US forces surrounding the city.

The latest deaths take the US military toll to at least 761 since the start of the US-led invasion in March last year.

Violence also flared northeast of Baghdad Thursday as insurgents bombed a Kurdish political party's offices in Baquba, wounding four people.

Two blasts, within minutes of each other, wounded four people at the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, policeman Firas Mahmud told AFP.

Meanwhile, in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, unknown assailants assassinated an agriculture official, in the latest killing of individuals cooperating with the US-led coalition, police said.

So sad message .

REGIMENTAL PRAYER

Almighty, merciful, and loving Father,
you are the one who hears all our prayers and grants our petitions.

We ask you to remember, as we do,
the tremendous sacrifice made by those who went before us.
They have given their lives so that we might live and breathe freely.
We ask you to receive them into your hands.

Father, give us the strength and wisdom to learn from their example,
to uphold freedom and life at home and around the world.

Keep us vigilant as we guard the frontiers of freedom.

Give our leaders the wisdom and the strength to lead well.

Grant all of us courage and confidence.
Be, for all of us, troopers, a wise counsel in keeping peace
and a strong shield for us against our enemies.
Oh heavenly Father, give us the determination
that the peace and freedom won at such a high price be lasting!

Father, hold all of the troopers in the palm of your almighty hand
and protect them in the shadow of your wings.

Amen.