/ 6 January 2008

Bomb hits Iraq Army Day celebrations

A suicide bomber killed nine people during celebrations to mark Army Day in the eastern Baghdad suburb of Karrada on Sunday, the latest in an upsurge of suicide bombings in Iraq.

The blast took place outside the offices of an NGO called the Iraqi Unity Gathering, which had been hosting an event for army officers and tribal leaders from both of Iraq’s religious sects.

In the northern Baghdad suburb of Qahira, a car bomb outside a restaurant killed three people and wounded 12, police said.

While overall levels of violence in Iraq are down, United States military figures show that suicide bomb attacks have increased slightly since reaching a low in October.

In the Karrada blast, Reuters television footage showed a group of soldiers dancing in a tight circle in the street, waving their AK-47 assault rifles in the air and chanting ”Where is terrorism today?” shortly before the bomb exploded.

One police official said nine people were killed, including two soldiers, three policemen and four civilians, and 17 people wounded, including seven soldiers and policemen. A second police source put the death toll at eight.

The bomber, wearing an explosive vest, blew himself up in the narrow, residential street outside the NGO’s offices as guests were leaving and milling about outside.

A Reuters cameraman, who was less than 10m away when the bomb exploded, saw soldiers dragging away several lifeless uniformed bodies. The turret gunner of an Iraqi army Humvee fired bursts into the air.

”I was interviewing a cleric when a huge explosion rocked the whole street. I was luckily protected by a wall from the force of the blast but I kept filming the havoc it caused,” Reuters cameraman Salem al-Uraibi said.

”I saw at least four bodies and a lot of people wounded.”

A Reuters photographer was slightly wounded in the blast.

The head of the Iraqi Unity Gathering, Yassin al-Hashemi, said its aim was to promote reconciliation between Iraq’s religious sects and ethnic groups.

The group includes former army officers who took part in the 1991 Shi’ite uprising against Saddam Hussein in southern Iraq.

”The terrorists and al-Qaeda want to stop our march and they are targeting all the good people of this country. But we are going forward to achieve our goals and to support the government in its reconciliation projects,” Hashemi said.

A suicide bomber killed 34 people and wounded 38 at a funeral in eastern Baghdad on New Year’s Day in the worst attack in the capital in six months. — Reuters