Two near simultaneous bombings targeted a crowded downtown Baghdad coffee shop and nearby restaurant, killing at least 23 people and wounding 26, according to police and hospital officials.
The blasts occurred as the mother of abducted American reporter Jill Carroll appealed for her daughter’s release after her captors threatened to kill her if United States authorities don’t release all Iraqi women in military custody.
Iraqi authorities said six of the eight detained Iraqi females are expected to be released by the US military next week, but not as part of a bid to free Carroll, who was seized in Baghdad on January 7. US officials declined to comment.
The bombing occurred on Baghdad’s Saadoun Street, the first targeting a coffee shop that killed 16 people and wounded 21, said police Lieutenant Bilal Mohammed. Police gave conflicting accounts as to what caused the blast, ranging from a suicide attacker wearing an explosives belt to a rigged cigarette cart with artillery shells placed inside.
Seconds later, a blast caused by a planted bomb rocked a nearby restaurant, killing at least seven more people and injuring five, including two women, Mohammed added.
Alaa Abid Ali, a medic at Baghdad’s Kindi Hospital, said at least 14 bodies were received at his hospital while nine were taken to Ibn al-Nafis Hospital.
The blasts shattered nearby shop windows and destroyed several cars. Wooden tables and chairs were strewn over the bloodstained pavement on which rescue workers treated some of the wounded. Two men wailed above the dead bodies of two men covered with bloodstained blankets outside the coffee shop.
The attacks occurred as the government’s election commission prepared to announce results of the December 15 parliamentary elections, possibly as early as Friday.
The Interior Ministry said the number of troops and police on the streets would be sharply increased ahead of the announcement.
A foreign assessment team also released a report on Thursday saying it found numerous violations and reports of fraud during the polls, but it did not question the final results.
The International Mission for Iraqi Elections also praised the staging of elections during an ongoing war, but said there was an ”urgent need … for a formation of a government of true national unity”.
The appeal by Carroll’s mother, Mary Beth Carroll, was made on CNN one day ahead of the kidnappers’ deadline for their demands to be met.
Carroll told CNN that video images gave her hope that her daughter is alive but also have ”shaken us about her fate”.
”I, her father and her sister are appealing directly to her captors to release this young woman who has worked so hard to show the sufferings of Iraqis to the world,” she said.
Al-Jazeera television aired the first video images of her since her capture on Tuesday. The report said the 20 second video gave authorities until Friday night to free the Iraqi women or they would kill the reporter.
New images showing the journalist surrounded by armed and masked hostage-takers were aired on Thursday by al-Jazeera. The 20 seconds of silent footage also showed her talking to the camera. An editor from al-Jazeera said the footage was from the same tape the station had earlier aired part of.
The US military has said eight Iraqi women are in military detention. An Iraqi government commission reviewing detainee cases recommended to US authorities on Monday that six of them be released.
Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim Ali said the six women would be released next week but ”not part of any swap with any kidnappers”.
”I insisted that the Americans should bring their files and release them and they will be freed next week along with other detainees,” Ali told Associated Press Television News. He did not elaborate on who the other detainees were.
US officials refused to comment on Wednesday on whether any of the women were set to be released.
An official from a prominent Sunni political organisation called for Carroll’s release and denounced all kidnappings.
”We condemn the abductions of innocent civilians and journalists and call for the immediate release of the American reporter and all innocent people who have nothing to do with the [US-led] occupation,” said Harith al-Obeidi of the Conference for Iraq’s People.
French journalist and former hostage Florence Aubenas, who was released in June after being held hostage for 157 days, also called on Carroll’s hostage-takers to release her.
”She came to this country to do her job as a journalist and not anything else,” Aubenas told al-Jazeera.
Iraqi Accordance Front head Adnan al-Dulami, a Sunni Arab leader whom Carroll had been attempting to interview before she was taken, called the kidnapping un-Islamic, the Christian Science Monitor reported on its website.
On the streets of Baghdad, though, the reaction among ordinary Iraqis was mixed.
”If the purpose behind the abduction was to free Iraqi female prisoners, it was a legitimate right for Iraqis,” an Iraqi policemen said while conducting traffic in Baghdad. ”But if it was a terrorist act, we denounced that.”
President George Bush ignored shouted questions on Wednesday about what his administration is doing to find Carroll. White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said her safe return was a priority for the administration but refused to say more ”because of the sensitivity of the situation”.
David Cook, the Washington bureau chief for the Christian Science Monitor, told a news conference that Carroll’s work has demonstrated she is respectful of Arab culture and people, and the newspaper has shown it treats different cultures and viewpoints fairly.
American and Iraqi officials had predicted an upsurge of violence ahead of the announcement of the December election returns. Scores of people died in violence across the country on Wednesday.
Thirty people were dragged from their cars at crude checkpoints erected on unpaved roads and shot dead execution-style in farming areas in Nibaei, a town near Dujail, about 80km north of Baghdad, said police Lieutenant Qahtan al-Hashmawi.
Insurgents also opened fire on a convoy of the cellphone company Iraqna, killing six security guards and three drivers in western Baghdad. Two engineers, believed to be Kenyans, were missing and feared kidnapped.
Two American civilians were killed in a roadside bombing in the southern city of Basra. They worked for the Texas-based security company DynCorp and were training Iraqi police. A third American was seriously wounded in the attack, the US Embassy said. – Sapa-AP