'Model' Iraq town struck by bombing
Correspondents in Baghdad
March 28, 2006
A TOWN singled out by US President George W. Bush as a success story for American and Iraqi forces in the drive to quell the insurgency was last night the scene of a suicide bombing that killed at least 40 people and wounded 20 others.
The attack, in which the bomber detonated an explosives belt amid a line of recruits outside Tamarat army base at 11.15am (7.15pm AEDT) near the town of Tal Afar, close to the Syrian border, was the deadliest single attack since a January suicide assault on police recruits in Ramadi.
"Forty people have been killed and 20 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of candidates waiting at the army recruitment centre," an Interior Ministry official said.
Mr Bush had cited Tal Afar, the scene of major joint US-Iraqi operations last year, as a model for coalition efforts to create a stable Iraq.
In a separate incident, US troops and Iraqi special forces were accused yesterday of killing 16 Iraqis after becoming embroiled in a fierce battle with a powerful Shia militia at a Baghdad mosque, raising fears in Washington that American forces are being drawn into growing sectarian violence.
The clash, the circumstances of which were disputed by the US military, erupted after the Mahdi Army militia loyal to firebrand Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr tried to stop US troops from entering a mosque in a Shia stronghold in eastern Baghdad.
It was unclear how the clash started, but a senior aide to Sadr fanned the flames of anti-American sentiment by accusing the US troops of killing more than 20 unarmed worshippers during evening prayers.
US forces confirmed that a raid had taken place in the Adhamiyah neighbourhood involving their and Iraqi troops, but insisted no mosque had been entered or damaged, and that 16 insurgents had been killed.
Iraqi police sources said 16 Mahdi Army fighters were killed in the clash. Iraqi forces also detained 15 individuals and discovered a kidnap victim and a cache of materials to make roadside bombs.
Iraqi television broadcast footage showing a tangle of male bodies with gunshot wounds on the floor of what was said to be the living quarters of the mosque's imam. If confirmed, the fighting at the mosque would be the heaviest battle between US troops and the Mahdi Army for more than a year, at a time when the US has been eager to show that it is handing control to the regular Iraqi Army.
Sadr has consistently preached opposition to the US-led presence in Iraq. In August 2004 he led a battle against US forces in Najaf, the holiest city in Iraq, where hundreds of Mahdi fighters based in the golden-domed shrine of Imam Ali held out for almost a month against US marines.
When Sadr eventually backed down, many hardliners within the Mahdi Army were furious, and the movement fragmented. The cleric then allowed his followers to stand as members of the Shia Alliance that was victorious in elections last December, but never disarmed the force that provides his power base.
It continues to impose, at gunpoint, its radical interpretation of Islamic sharia law and inspires fear across southern Iraq, where it has infiltrated the police and civil service authorities. It remains a deadly instrument at its leader's disposal.
American officials now claim that Shia militias pose the most pressing problem in Iraq.
US troops were also involved in a separate confrontation with Iraqi government forces in Baghdad, detaining up to 40 members of the Interior Ministry, who were holding 17 Sudanese nationals in a bunker complex.
In another grim find, the Iraqi Army reported that it had sent troops to investigate a report that 30 beheaded corpses were found in a village north of Baghdad.
The Times, AFP
Link Here
March 28, 2006
A TOWN singled out by US President George W. Bush as a success story for American and Iraqi forces in the drive to quell the insurgency was last night the scene of a suicide bombing that killed at least 40 people and wounded 20 others.
The attack, in which the bomber detonated an explosives belt amid a line of recruits outside Tamarat army base at 11.15am (7.15pm AEDT) near the town of Tal Afar, close to the Syrian border, was the deadliest single attack since a January suicide assault on police recruits in Ramadi.
"Forty people have been killed and 20 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the midst of candidates waiting at the army recruitment centre," an Interior Ministry official said.
Mr Bush had cited Tal Afar, the scene of major joint US-Iraqi operations last year, as a model for coalition efforts to create a stable Iraq.
In a separate incident, US troops and Iraqi special forces were accused yesterday of killing 16 Iraqis after becoming embroiled in a fierce battle with a powerful Shia militia at a Baghdad mosque, raising fears in Washington that American forces are being drawn into growing sectarian violence.
The clash, the circumstances of which were disputed by the US military, erupted after the Mahdi Army militia loyal to firebrand Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr tried to stop US troops from entering a mosque in a Shia stronghold in eastern Baghdad.
It was unclear how the clash started, but a senior aide to Sadr fanned the flames of anti-American sentiment by accusing the US troops of killing more than 20 unarmed worshippers during evening prayers.
US forces confirmed that a raid had taken place in the Adhamiyah neighbourhood involving their and Iraqi troops, but insisted no mosque had been entered or damaged, and that 16 insurgents had been killed.
Iraqi police sources said 16 Mahdi Army fighters were killed in the clash. Iraqi forces also detained 15 individuals and discovered a kidnap victim and a cache of materials to make roadside bombs.
Iraqi television broadcast footage showing a tangle of male bodies with gunshot wounds on the floor of what was said to be the living quarters of the mosque's imam. If confirmed, the fighting at the mosque would be the heaviest battle between US troops and the Mahdi Army for more than a year, at a time when the US has been eager to show that it is handing control to the regular Iraqi Army.
Sadr has consistently preached opposition to the US-led presence in Iraq. In August 2004 he led a battle against US forces in Najaf, the holiest city in Iraq, where hundreds of Mahdi fighters based in the golden-domed shrine of Imam Ali held out for almost a month against US marines.
When Sadr eventually backed down, many hardliners within the Mahdi Army were furious, and the movement fragmented. The cleric then allowed his followers to stand as members of the Shia Alliance that was victorious in elections last December, but never disarmed the force that provides his power base.
It continues to impose, at gunpoint, its radical interpretation of Islamic sharia law and inspires fear across southern Iraq, where it has infiltrated the police and civil service authorities. It remains a deadly instrument at its leader's disposal.
American officials now claim that Shia militias pose the most pressing problem in Iraq.
US troops were also involved in a separate confrontation with Iraqi government forces in Baghdad, detaining up to 40 members of the Interior Ministry, who were holding 17 Sudanese nationals in a bunker complex.
In another grim find, the Iraqi Army reported that it had sent troops to investigate a report that 30 beheaded corpses were found in a village north of Baghdad.
The Times, AFP
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 1:05 PM
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