38 killed in Iraq bombings

Friday 27th June, 06:36 AM JST

BAGHDAD —

At least 38 people were killed in two massive bomb attacks in Iraq Thursday, 20 of them dying at the hands of a suicide bomber as they held an anti-Qaida meet, officials said.

A car bomb also ripped through northern Iraq’s restive city of Mosul, killing 18 people, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.

The suicide bomber blew himself up in a municipal office in western Iraq’s Anbar province, killing the local mayor and at least 19 senior members of an anti-Qaida front, according to Iraqi officials.

The attack which the U.S. military said appeared to be carried out by al-Qaida occurred in the town of Garma, near the former Sunni rebel bastion of Fallujah, the Fallujah town council spokesman Kamal al-Ayash said.

Ayash said the bomber detonated his explosive vest in the office of mayor Kamal al-Abdali as he was huddled in a meeting with members of an anti-Qaida “Awakening” group around noon.

“Abdali was one of those killed in the attack,” Ayash said.

A security official in the defense ministry confirmed that at least 20 people were killed and 20 more were wounded in the attack.

U.S. military Sergeant Brooke Murphy said the attack also resulted in U.S. casualties but did not offer details, adding it “bears the hallmarks of having been carried out by al-Qaida in Iraq.”

The bombing marked the second attack on a municipal office in Iraq this week.

On Tuesday, the office of the district advisory council of Baghdad’s Shiite enclave of Sadr City was bombed in an attack which killed four Americans—two soldiers and two civilian employees.

The violence in Garma came just days before Anbar province, once a hotbed of Sunni militancy, is due to be transferred by the U.S. military to the control of Iraqi security forces.

The U.S. military said the transfer of would continue as per plan despite the attack.

The country’s largest province was the epicenter of a brutal Sunni Arab-led fight against the U.S. military after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.

In the early years of the insurgency, U.S. forces fought raging battles in the province, especially in the capital Ramadi and in Fallujah.

Fallujah became a symbol of the ultra-violent insurgency before it was virtually razed to the ground in November 2004 by a U.S. military assault launched to seize control of the city.

The violence Anbar began to ebb in late 2006 when local Sunni tribes, weary of al-Qaida’s extremism and brutal methods, switched allegiance and formed a common front to chase them out.

The front became known as Sahwa or “Awakening”. Most of its members are former Sunni Arab insurgents who fought U.S. forces after the fall of Saddam.

But since they sided with the U.S. troops in late 2006, violence has fallen dramatically in Anbar, making the province a symbol of stability in Iraq.

In the day’s second brutal attack, a car bomb in Mosul killed 18 people and wounded 80 others, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.

The U.S. military said initial reports indicated that 17 Iraqi civilians and a policeman were killed, while 71 civilians and nine policemen were wounded in the car bomb attack.

Wire reports

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Latest 15 of 28 Total Comments Show All

Madverts at 10:21 PM JST - 27th June

A serious question, though, Sarge - do you support the withrawls of surge troops bush is proposing?
Sarge at 11:49 PM JST - 27th June

Madverts,

Sorry, we don't flounder either. Keep trying.

"Do you support the ( withdrawals ) of surge troops ( Bush ) is supporting?"

General Petraeus recommends it. General Petraeus pretty much knows what's happening on the ground, so yeah, I support it.
SezWho2 at 11:58 PM JST - 27th June

Sarge,

I don't think our troops stumble, flounder or whatever word might suggest a certain degree of ineptness. However, I think it's quite fair to say that our administration does.
Taka313 at 12:06 AM JST - 28th June

Sez, And that's on their good days. ;-)

Taka
Madverts at 12:06 AM JST - 28th June

Sez,

"However, I think it's quite fair to say that our administration does."

That is whom is was referring to. And the ever-dwindling support base.
Madverts at 12:07 AM JST - 28th June

Sarge,

The US has been floundering in Iraq since it attempted to install a new regime.
SezWho2 at 07:40 AM JST - 28th June

Taka313,

That makes it awfully hard to pray for more good days.
SezWho2 at 07:48 AM JST - 28th June

Madverts,

I knew that.

But in America, whenever the troops are involved, we have to be so, so careful not to even appear to disrespect them in any way, shape or form. Too many people have the administration and the troops conjoined at the waist and then identify this Siamese anomaly as America.
jambon at 08:30 AM JST - 28th June

As usual, one has to read from the end of the article, backwards, for it to make any sense.

I'm starting to wonder if these news reports are from the pre-surge period. My sources in Iraq are enjoying ice cream. Lots of it.
rajakumar at 08:34 AM JST - 28th June

Troops should return home,enjoy good life as americans. No one can touch or challenge USA in arms/military industrial complexes. Why fight other, people's wars of arab world/middle east. Just leave like in vietnam wars of 1970s. Vietnam doing well now in 2000s,30 years later.
Sarge at 09:09 AM JST - 28th June

Madverts - "The US has been floundering in Iraq since it attempted to install a new regime"

I guess you missed the elections that even the U.N. said were free and fair. Heh, do you think we would have installed an Shiite Islamic regime?

Sez/Taka313 - Yeah, well, with the current "floundering" administration, the overall situation in Iraq continues to get better, doesn't it?
Taka313 at 11:32 AM JST - 28th June

Sez,

That makes it awfully hard to pray for more good days.

I think most people just pray for fewer days. There's a reason these guys are making good dough: http://www.backwardsbush.com/

Taka
SezWho2 at 02:29 PM JST - 28th June

Sarge,

Yes, the overall situation in Iraq continues to get better. Tell me when it gets up to "acceptable".
Madverts at 04:31 PM JST - 28th June

According to quite a few invasion supporters on this site, 532 dead in a month is something to veel vindicated about.
Sarge at 10:15 PM JST - 28th June

Taka313 - Reduced to backwardsbush.com? Pathetic indeed.

Madverts - "According to quite a few invasion supporters on this site, 532 dead in a month is something to ( feel ) vindicated about."

According to quite a few liberation protesters, it would have been better to allow Saddam Hussein, who caused misery and deaths for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to continue to run Iraq into the ground from his many luxurious palaces.