[NYTr] 2 Car Bombings Kill at Least 10 in Iraq

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP - Oct 9, 2007
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=MOSPL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

2 Car Bombings Kill at Least 10 in Iraq

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN
Associated Press Writer

 BAGHDAD (AP) -- Two nearly simultaneous car bombs targeted a local
police chief and a prominent Sunni sheik working with U.S. forces
against al-Qaida in Iraq in a northern city on Tuesday, killing at
least 10 people, authorities said.

In the Iraqi capital, a parked car bomb struck a commercial area in the
Khulani district, killing at least eight and wounding 25 people,
including four traffic policemen. Also, in Baghdad's predominantly
Shiite neighborhood of Shaab, another parked car bomb killed two people
and wounded 16, according to police.

The attacks were among a series of bombings in recent days as the
terror network apparently steps up its promised Ramadan offensive as
the end of the Islamic holy month draws near.

At least 24 people were killed in Baghdad and to the north on Monday in
car and truck bombings, which are generally blamed on al-Qaida and
other Sunni insurgents. Many of the attacks have targeted Iraqi police
officers, who have been frequent targets of the insurgency because they
are seen as cooperating with the U.S. and Iraqi governments.

In Beiji, a Sunni city 155 miles north of Baghdad, a minibus laden with
explosives slammed into the house of a local police chief, while a
Toyota Land Cruiser blew up outside the home of a leading member of the
local Awakening Council, a group of Iraqis who have turned against
extremists in the area.

Six houses were destroyed in the blasts, which took place within
minutes of each other and some 500 yards apart in a residential area.
Police and hospital officials said at least 10 people were killed and
17 wounded.

The neighborhood was sealed off as rescue workers searched through the
rubble for other victims.

The U.S. military said the police chief survived, but there was no
immediate word if the Sunni tribal official was among the casualties.

"This is yet another failed attempt to break the will of the Iraqi
people who just want to go on with their lives without violence, raise
their children, earn a living and coexist together in a peaceful
manner," said Lt. Col. Michael O. Donnelly, military spokesman for
northern Iraq.

Witness Saleh Jassim Moussa said two of his relatives from the
neighborhood were killed in the attacks.

The force of the blast was so strong, it shattered all the windows and
ripped the doors from their frames in his home, only a 100 yards away
from the first explosion.

"It was a really huge explosion, we panicked and ran out but for
minutes, we couldn't see anything because of the heavy smoke," said
Moussa, 38, a government employee, who was reached by phone. "We're
still digging through the rubble, looking for others."

Beiji is in the Sunni province of Salahuddin, which along with the vast
Anbar province to the west is part of Iraq's Sunni heartland. The
heartland has been the home base for the al-Qaida in Iraq insurgency,
but attacks in the area have decreased after local leaders backed by
the U.S. military organized tribal Awakening Councils and turned
against the terror network.

Also Tuesday morning, drive-by shooters killed the deputy police chief
in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, police said.

Brig. Gen. Abdul-Al Thanon was leaving his house when four gunmen
showered him with bullets from a speeding car. The deputy's driver was
wounded in the morning attack in Mosul's northern Hadbaa neighborhood,
police Brig. Gen. Mohamed al-Wakaa said.

A roadside bomb ripped through an outdoor market near a bus station in
Jisr Diyala on Baghdad's southeastern outskirts, killing two civilians
and wounding 10 others, police said.

In the southern neighborhood of Sadiyah, gunmen in a speeding car
fatally shot a Shiite father and his two sons as they were leaving
their home, police said. The police officials all spoke on condition of
anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

© 2007 The Associated Press.