Baghdad bombs kill three, injure 16
Two near simultaneous explosions in north-eastern Baghdad today killed three people and wounded 16, a day after the defence ministry said security forces would expand a crackdown into the eastern parts of the capital, including Shiite militia strongholds.
A car bomb exploded in the residential neighbourhood of Waziriyah as a police patrol passed by, shortly before a roadside bomb detonated at the same site, said police Maj. Ahmed al-Obeidi.
The neighbourhood was one of those which are to be included in the expanded security operation.
The defence ministry’s announcement yesterday followed a barrage of co-ordinated attacks across eastern Baghdad the previous night that killed 64 people and wounded 286. Police said the attacks included explosives planted in apartments, car bombs and several rocket and mortar attacks on mainly Shiite neighbourhoods.
The bloodshed capped a violent week that saw hundreds of Iraqis killed, and came despite a massive security crackdown in the capital that has targeted some of Baghdad’s most problematic neighbourhoods.
Late yesterday, the US-led military command said it conducted an air strike in Youssifiyah, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Baghdad, killing three suspected insurgents and possibly wounding bystanders.
It said two bombs were dropped by aircraft after coalition forces “conducting operations to disrupt al-Qaida in Iraq activities in the area” came under indirect mortar fire.
“Ground and aerial reports indicate bystanders may have been injured,” the coalition said in a statement, adding that it was carrying out an assessment out to determine whether civilians had been wounded.
In Washington, the US Defence Department issued a report to Congress saying sectarian violence is spreading in Iraq, with illegal militias becoming more entrenched, especially in Baghdad neighbourhoods where they are seen as providers of security as well as basic social services.
Death squads targeting mainly Iraqi civilians are a growing problem, heightening the risk of civil war, the report said.
Thursday’s attacks in Baghdad centred on neighbourhoods controlled by Shiite militias, some of which Sunni Arabs accuse of running death squads.
Defence Ministry spokesman Muhammad Al-Askari said security forces planned to expand into an area of eastern Baghdad that includes the bombed neighbourhoods in a matter of days. The move is part of “Operation Together Forward,” a security crackdown that targets the capital’s most violent and problematic districts in phases and has seen an extra 12,000 Iraqi and US troops deployed in the capital.
“We have prepared everything, but we are waiting to mobilise the troops and prepare the special military units that will implement the raids,” he said.
Sadr City, a stronghold of firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, would also be included, al-Askari told The Associated Press.
The area witnessed repeated clashes in the past between US troops and al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia. American forces have rarely ventured into the area recently, and an August 7 overnight aerial raid triggered an outburst of anger, even from Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
“No neighbourhood is off limits,” al-Askari told the AP. ”There’s not a single neighbourhood that’s a red line for us. Any area that has terrorist activity, we will enter – there will be no stop sign.”
He said no special arrangements had been made to deal with a security operation into the neighbourhood. Other areas would include Baghdad Jadida, Habibiyah, Waziriyah and Palestine Street, which has witnessed a surge in violence recently.
The expanded security operation would begin in a week to 10 days, he said, adding that the prime minister would decide on the exact date.
Al-Askari said the first two phases of the operation, which included Sunni Arab districts, was successful.
“The terrorists will not work in these districts any more, the terrorists are moving to suburbs of Baghdad, to districts that were not included in the first and second phases, to worsen the security situation there,” he said.
Despite the violence, Iraqi authorities are optimistic about the handover of security control. The Iraqi Ground Forces Command took over control from the US-led coalition Friday of the first of 10 Iraqi army divisions, the US-led command said in a statement.
The 8th Iraqi Army Division, based in Diwaniyah, will now report directly to Iraqi authorities rather than through the coalition.
Diwaniyah, 130km south of Baghdad, was the site of a fierce, 12-hour battle between the 8th Division and Shiite militia earlier in the week that left more than 20 soldiers and 50 militiamen dead.
