2ND At least 132 dead in Baghdad bomb attacks

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Sunday November 26, 2006

Baghdad- At least 132 people have reported killed in a series of powerful bomb attacks Thursday in Baghdad's suburb of Sadr City, said General Jihad al-Jabiri of the Interior Ministry. Sources say the death toll is liable to mount as an additional 200 Iraqis were injured - some severely - in the attacks, said to be a combination of mortar and car bomb explosions.

The first explosion was said to have taken place in a vegetable market, was followed by five further car bombings occurring at intervals of 15 minutes. A seventh car bomb was detected and disarmed.

Earlier Thursday, American military forces in Iraq killed four civilians and wounded eight others in eastern Baghdad, while an insurgent attack on Iraqi Ministry of Health came to an end in the city's centre on Thursday.

According to Iraqi police, a US force opened fire at a small bus during a raid in al-Fallah street in Baghdad's Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City.

Witnesses said the victims were on their way to work when a US tank opened fire at their bus.

The Americans, suspecting that a kidnapped US soldier was being kept in Sadr City, were conducting continuous raids in neighbourhood.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, an earlier attack by unidentified militants on the Iraqi Ministry of Health came to an end late Thursday with no word available as to casualties.

The al-Arabiya network earlier reported the ministry's administrative deputy Hakem al-Zamely as saying the employees of the ministry were hiding themselves inside the building as the militants battled with the buildings guards.

A ministry spokesman said the attacks had probably come from the nearby Sunni communities. The Ministry of Health is run by Ali al- Shammari, a member of the group led by radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The Ministry of Health building near central Baghdad has been under mortar attacks for the past few days, in addition several ministry officials have been victims of either kidnapping or assassination attempts including al-Zamely.

Meanwhile, in a surprise visit US Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Baghdad on Thursday, the al-Iraqiya television reported.

Cheney is expected to hold talks with Iraqi leaders on the security situation in the country, the TV report said.

This comes as the US military command in Fallujah reported Thursday that insurgents had killed three US marines in western Iraq Wednesday during operations in the western province of Anbar.

US military sources also said one insurgent was killed and two suspects were detained during a raid Wednesday evening in Balad, 80 kilometres north of Baghdad.

Iraqi police also reported Thursday the death of a Christian politician who was shot dead by unidentified militants in the northern city of Mosulon Wednesday evening.

Sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Yashua Mageed Hedaya, the head of the independent Assyrian movement, was killed leaving his political party headquarters in the mostly Christian town of Qarqash, north-east of Mosul.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency