Global Arab Network | Iraq - Bombing attacks kill about 200 in a week

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Iraq - Bombing attacks kill about 200 in a week

The bombing in Baghdad pushed the death toll from a weeklong series of blasts to about 200. At least seven people have died in attacks in Iraq amid funerals for some of the victims of a bomb explosion in a busy Baghdad market the previous day.

Women and children were among at least 72 people killed and 100 wounded in that blast, caused by a motorcycle rickshaw loaded with explosives and covered with fruit and vegetables.

The wave of violence comes just days after the US military formally handed control of Baghdad's Sadr City area - the scene of Wednesday's bombing - to local forces.

US forces are also due to withdraw from all cities and major towns of Iraq by the end of this month, including Mosul and Kirkuk, where violence levels remain persistently high.

Relatives of two police officers killed in the Sadr City blast marched through the streets of the neighbourhood on Thursday, behind vehicles carrying the two coffins draped in Iraqi flags.

Hundreds of angry Iraqis gathered around the wreckage of the market bombing, demanding better protection from the government when US soldiers pull back to rural bases.

Elsewhere, nine US soldiers were wounded when two roadside bombs hit their patrol, the US army said. The incident occurred in eastern Baghdad.

And in western Iraq, four Iraqi policemen were killed in two separate incidents near the former anti-government stronghold of Falluja, police officials said.

Three of the officers died when a homemade bomb targeted a police patrol, while the fourth died in a drive-by shooting at a security checkpoint.

An Iraqi soldier was also killed and 13 people wounded, including four other troops, by a car bomb near the city of Mosul, a police official said.

A US military spokesman said on Wednesday that a small number of US troops would be left in some Iraqi cities after the June 30 deadline at so-called Joint Security Stations to train and advise local security forces.

The US military will also continue to provide intelligence and air support, and be on call if needed.

The No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq said the military expected violence ahead of the withdrawal deadline but that he was optimistic the brutal retaliatory sectarian attacks of the past would not resume.

"Nobody said there wasn't going to be violence and tough days," Lt. Gen. Charles Jacoby told The Associated Press on Thursday.

"What I've seen so far is calm, deliberate, professional reaction to the bombings," he said. "I think the government has said and done the right things."

He blamed the attacks on those trying to undermine the U.S.-Iraqi partnership, and called the withdrawal from cities a "successful milestone for coalition forces and Iraqi security forces."

While there has been no collective blame for the attacks, the U.S. military believes al-Qaida is struggling to regain a foothold after being beaten back over the past two years. U.S. military officials believe the group has plunged from thousands at its peak in 2006-2007 to hundreds now.

Under that theory, the attacks appear aimed at provoking a violent response from Shiites that could plunge the country into civil war, as they almost did three years ago.

"We think we have beaten back al-Qaida to the point where they are now conducting attacks that are basically propaganda campaigns to make it look as though they are driving us out of Iraqi cities," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday.

The wave of attacks is undermining Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's declaration of a "great victory" in the U.S. pullout from urban areas by next Tuesday's deadline. He has declared June 30 a national holiday to be marked with celebrations.

Al-Maliki has pinned his re-election hopes largely on security gains that have driven violence to wartime lows — an issue that's become his stump speech in an undeclared campaign for a second term. Seven months before national elections, he tells audiences that he's quashed major violence, dismembered al-Qaida and stamped out Shiite militias.

Much of his recent rhetoric has focused on June 30, part of a security agreement that calls for American forces to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

On Saturday, al-Maliki declared that date a national victory and urged Iraqis to hold steady in the face of more violence, saying "don't worry if some security breach occurs here or there."

Security developments

Following are security developments in Iraq at 1420 GMT on Thursday:

BAGHDAD - A bomb attached to a bus wounded three civilians in Amil district, southwestern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A parked car bomb wounded five people in Bayaa, southwestern Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A bomb at a bus terminal killed two people and wounded 30 others in Bayaa, police and a hospital source said.

BAGHDAD - Two roadside bombs targeting a U.S. military patrol wounded nine U.S. soldiers in Rusafa, eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military said in a statement.

FALLUJA - A roadside bomb killed five policemen, including an officer, in Amiriya al-Falluja, south of Falluja city, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol killed one policeman and wounded three others on Wednesday in eastern Baghdad's Baladiyat district, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed one civilian and wounded ten others on Wednesday in southern Baghdad's Jihad district, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb wounded four civilians on Wednesday in southern Baghdad's Saidiya district, police said.

Mosul - A roadside bomb killed a police colonel when it struck his car on Wednesday in the north of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. (AP, AFP, Reuters)

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