Suicide Car Bombing Kills 30 in Iraq

[j_shady]

18 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomb detonated outside a hospital in the center of a town south of Baghdad on Thursday, killing 30 people including four police guards, three women and two children, a doctor said. The bomber was targeting U.S. military vehicles parked nearby, an Iraqi army officer said.
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The U.S. vehicles were parked near the hospital in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, where U.S. soldiers were distributing toys to children in the hospital, another Iraqi soldier said.

Dr. Dawoud al-Taie, the director of the Mahmoudiya hospital, said 35 people were wounded in the morning attack.

Iraqi army Capt. Ibrahim Abdeallah said two U.S. soldiers were among the wounded and one Humvee was damaged.

Mahmoudiya is a religiously mixed town in the so-called triangle of death, a region known for attacks on coalition forces and Shiites moving through the area to visit shrines south of the region.

In the southern Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, gunmen ambushed a police patrol on Thursday, killing four officers, police Capt. Qassim Hussein said.

In a separate attack, a bodyguard for the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party branch in Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad, was wounded in a drive-by shooting Thursday morning. Hussein Abid al-Zubeidi, who is also a member of the Diyala provincial council, said he escaped unharmed from the attack near Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

In a similar shooting, former Iraqi army Col. Hussein Mohammed was killed late Wednesday in Baqouba, said Dr. Ahmed Fouad, a morgue attendant.

There have been repeated in insurgent attacks in the Khalis-Baqouba area, mostly focusing on Iraqis who join the security forces or participate in politics.

Elsewhere, three American soldiers from Task Force Baghdad died of gunshot wounds Wednesday, the U.S. military said. Two died in southwest Baghdad, while another died in central Baghdad, the statement said.

Government spokesman Laith Kubba predicted insurgent attacks would rise before elections on Dec. 15. "Muslim extremists and Saddam (Hussein's) criminals" will be making their last stand, he told a news conference on Thursday.

On Wednesday, gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms burst into the home of a Sunni Arab sheik, killing him, three of his sons and a son-in-law in an attack police said may have been aimed at discouraging members of the minority from participating in next month's election.

Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem, who lived on the outskirts of Baghdad, was the leader of a branch of the Dulaimi tribe, one of the biggest in
Iraq. His brother is a candidate in the Dec. 15 parliamentary election, three of his sons had been policemen and another son was slain last month north of the capital, police and family members said.

The brutal attack on the sheik and his family took place amid a major campaign by U.S. and Iraqi authorities to encourage Sunni Arabs to vote next month in hopes of luring them away from the insurgency.

Some insurgent groups have declared a boycott of the election and have threatened politicians who participate. Police said they suspected the sheik's death was designed as a warning to Sunni Arabs against heeding the U.S. call.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's biggest Sunni political group, also condemned the assassination and demanded that the Defense Ministry "control its forces and punish the perpetrators."

Police Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi denied that government forces were involved in the killings and blamed the insurgents.

"Surely, they are outlaw insurgents. As for the military uniform, they can be bought from many shops in Baghdad," he said, adding that several police and army vehicles had been stolen and could be used in raids.

The United States hopes that a big Sunni turnout next month will produce a broad-based government that can win the minority's trust, helping to take the steam out of the Sunni-led insurgency and hasten the day when American and other foreign troops can go home.

Many Sunnis, who account for about 20 percent of Iraq's 27 million people but were dominant under
Saddam Hussein, boycotted the January election, enabling rival Shiites and Kurds to dominate the transitional government, a development that heightened tensions.

At the same time, U.S. military commanders have warned that insurgents will probably escalate attacks in hopes of undermining the election.
(source:yahoo.com)