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Suicide Bombings in Iraqi Cities Kill 25 | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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BAGHDAD, Iraq, AP -Suicide bombers struck Saturday in Baghdad and a Shiite city south of the capital in attacks that killed 25 people and injured nearly 50, Iraqi officials said. One of the attackers targeted bystanders and police who had rushed to the scene of an earlier blast.

In the first attack, an attacker blew himself up outside a recruiting station for police special forces in western Baghdad, killing at least 16 other people, including 11 recruits, police and hospital officials said. Another 22 people were injured. A Web statement claimed responsibility in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq.

The other attacks occurred in Hillah, a mostly Shiite city 60 miles south of Baghdad. Police Capt. Muthana Khalid Ali said the first blast occurred when a suicide bomber detonated a belt of explosives at a police checkpoint in the city center.

Six policemen and the attacker died in the blast, Ali said.

About 10 minutes later, a second suicide attacker blew himself up in a crowd of police and civilians who had rushed to the scene of the first blast, Ali said. Twenty-six people were injured, but only the attacker died, according to Dr. Hashim Suleiman of the Hillah General Hospital.

Hillah is a largely Shiite city about 60 miles south of Baghdad. On Feb. 28, a suicide car bomber struck a crowd of police and army recruits in Hillah, killing 125 and wounding more than 140 in the second deadliest attack since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Hillah attacks. However, a posting on an Islamic Web site claimed responsibility for the Baghdad blast in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The statement”s authenticity could not be confirmed. Al-Zarqawi”s group is believed responsible for numerous suicide bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages in Iraq.

In a separate incident Saturday, a fire destroyed a U.S. military helicopter while it was conducting routine resupply operations near Camp Ramadi in western Iraq, slightly injuring one crewman.

The CH-47 Chinook caught fire on the ground and the cause of the blaze was under investigation, the military said in a statement Sunday.

In other violence Saturday, three Iraqi soldiers were killed Saturday in a roadside bombing northeast of Baghdad, their commander said. Gunmen also assassinated a police lieutenant colonel in the northern city of Mosul, officials said.

Two other people were killed when a bomb hidden in a vegetable cart exploded Saturday in Mahmoudiya, 12 miles south of Baghdad.

The blast occurred a few minutes after mourners passed by with the body of an aide to Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani who was slain Friday outside a Baghdad mosque. The mourners were carrying the body through the town en route to burial in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf.

Also Saturday, a policeman and a female relative traveling with him in a civilian car were killed in a drive-by shooting in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers north of Baghdad, authorities said.

A parked car bomb exploded Saturday near a police station in the New Baghdad section of the capital, wounding nine people including two policemen, officials said.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Iraq since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Shiite-led government on April 28.

The U.S. military on Saturday announced the capture of doctor Safa Ali Chiad Mashul, who allegedly worked for an al-Qaida in Iraq leader,

They said the doctor allegedly helped Samir Ammar Hamid Mahmoud, known as Abu Aqil, plan terrorist attacks and operations. Abu Aqil was captured last month.

Also Saturday, the U.S. military promised a full investigation into a June 25 incident in which Iraq”s U.N. ambassador, Samir Sumaidaie, said Marines killed his unarmed 21-year-old cousin in &#34cold blood&#34 in Anbar province.

Sumaidaie said his cousin Mohammed Sumaidaie took Marines doing house-to-house searches to a bedroom to show them where a rifle that had no live ammunition was kept. When the Marines left, he was found in the bedroom with a bullet in his neck, Sumaidaie said.

He called the killing &#34a betrayal&#34 of the values and aspirations of Iraqis and Americans to defeat the terrorists and build a country based on freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights and the rule of law.

&#34The events described in the allegations roughly correspond to an incident involving Coalition Forces on that day in that general location; therefore a military inquiry has been initiated,&#34 Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson said in a statement.

&#34We take these allegations seriously and will thoroughly investigate this incident to determine what happened,&#34 Johnson said, adding that the investigation could take several weeks.

Swiss authorities, meanwhile, said a dual Swiss-Iraqi national was shot and killed in Iraq. Swiss media reports said the victim, identified only as S.J., was accidentally shot by a U.S. soldier but the Swiss Foreign Ministry would not confirm details of his death.

Insurgent attacks have raised tensions among Iraq”s varied ethnic and religious groups and have raised fears of civil war. In a statement Saturday, the leader of Iraq”s biggest Shiite political party warned against sectarian strife and called on the Iraqi government to step up efforts to fight with militants.

&#34We stress the importance of being alert and cautious not to be carried away toward the sectarian strife that our enemies want for us,&#34 Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said. &#34We ask the Iraqi government, particularly the security apparatuses, to exert more efforts to strike these terrorist groups.&#34