久久亚洲国产成人影院-久久亚洲国产的中文-久久亚洲国产高清-久久亚洲国产精品-亚洲图片偷拍自拍-亚洲图色视频

  Home>News Center>World
         
 

5 car bombs rock Baghdad before elections
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-20 08:42

Insurgents unleashed a wave of car bombings across the Iraqi capital Wednesday, killing about a dozen people, despite stepped-up U.S. and Iraqi measures to protect this month's elections. North of Baghdad, insurgents killed a British security officer and kidnapped a Japanese engineer, officials said.

Gunmen fired on the Baghdad office of a major Kurdish party and two senior officials escaped assassination in separate attacks in the north.

The U.S. military put the death toll from the day's Baghdad bombings at 26, saying the number was based on initial reports at the scene. Iraqi officials gave a lower toll — 12 people killed in the bombings and one at the Kurdish office.

An elections poster of Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is seen through a windshield of a car damaged in an explosion outside a police station in Baghdad, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005. A car bomb exploded near the police station half hour after the blast near the Australian Embassy in central Baghdad on Wednesday killed two people. [AP]
An elections poster of Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is seen through a windshield of a car damaged in an explosion outside a police station in Baghdad, Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005. A car bomb exploded near the police station half hour after the blast near the Australian Embassy in central Baghdad on Wednesday killed two people. [AP]
Sunni Muslim insurgents have threatened to disrupt the elections, and the five car bombings — four within a span of 90 minutes — underscored the grave threat facing Iraqis at this watershed in their history. U.S. and Iraqi forces have stepped up raids and arrests in Baghdad, Mosul and other troublespots as the elections approach.

Nevertheless, the attacks had little effect on preparations for the Jan. 30 balloting, in which Iraqis will choose a 275-member National Assembly and regional legislatures. At Baghdad airport, Iraqi authorities Wednesday received the largest shipment of ballot boxes and other elections equipment to date.

Elections official Farid Ayar said 90,000 ballot boxes had already been flown to Iraq along with millions of ballots printed mostly in Canada and Australia.

U.S. troops from the 1st Infantry Division patrol the streets during an early morning raid in Khatoon, a suburb of the Iraqi town of Baquba on January 19, 2005. REUTERS/Nikola Solic
U.S. troops from the 1st Infantry Division patrol the streets during an early morning raid in Khatoon, a suburb of the Iraqi town of Baquba on January 19, 2005.[Reuters]
Throughout the morning Wednesday, the routine clatter of big city traffic was punctuated by the crisp sound of distant explosions. U.S. military helicopters rattled low overhead, roaming the bright blue sky for any sign of trouble.

Al-Qaida's branch in Iraq claimed responsibility for the first of the day's blasts, which occurred about 7 a.m. at the Australian Embassy in the capital. A truck packed with explosives blew up outside the concrete barriers in front of the embassy, killing two people and wounding several, including two Australian soldiers.

"A lion of monotheism and faith ... carried out a martyrdom operation nearby the Australian Embassy," the group al-Qaida in Iraq said in an Internet statement. The group is led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has allied himself with Osama bin Laden's terror network.

Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, director of the U.S. military press center, said U.S. officials could not explain the discrepancy between the American and Iraqi figures "but we are holding to our numbers."

A half-hour after the embassy blast, another car bomb exploded at a police station next to a hospital in eastern Baghdad. The U.S. military said 18 were killed there, but the Iraqi Interior Ministry put the death toll at six, including a policewoman.

A third car bombing struck at the main gate to an Iraqi military recruiting center located at a disused airport in central Baghdad. Police said the driver told guards he was delivering potatoes and detonated his explosives at the gate, killing three Iraqi soldiers and injuring one American.

The U.S. military also said a car bomb detonated southwest of Baghdad International Airport, killing two Iraqi security guards. The fifth car bomb exploded around noon near a Shiite mosque and a bank in north Baghdad, killing one person and injuring another, police said.

Also in the capital, insurgents in a car fired on an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, killing one of its members and wounding another, party officials said.

Elsewhere, an Iraqi police officer was killed Wednesday in another car bombing in the largely Shiite city of Hillah south of Baghdad, the Polish military said.

In London, Janusian Security Risk Management, Ltd., confirmed two of his employees — one Briton and one Iraqi — were killed and a third, also a foreigner, was missing after an ambush in Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad.

Also in Beiji, gunmen killed two Iraqi policemen and abducted a Japanese engineer, police Lt. Shaalan Allawi said. The engineer's name was not released.

To the north, the dean of the police academy in the Kurdish self-governing region, Maj. Gen. Wirya Maarouf, escaped an assassination attempt when gunmen opened fire on his convoy in the city of Irbil. One bystander was killed and another injured, said police Col. Tharwat AbdulKarim.

Farther north, a roadside bomb exploded in Dahuk near the convoy of provincial Gov. Nejrivan Ahmed, but he was not injured, AbdulKarim said.

U.S. and Iraqi officials had predicted an escalation in violence as the elections approach, with Sunni insurgents seeking to frighten people into staying away from the polls. Sunni clerics have also called for a boycott because of the presence of U.S. and other foreign forces on Iraqi soil.

Although the majority Shiite Muslims and the Kurds are expected to vote in large numbers, officials fear a low turnout among Sunni Arabs may cast doubt on the legitimacy of the new government and sharpen communal tensions among the country's 26 million people.

US President Bush called interim President Ghazi al-Yawer on Wednesday to discuss preparations for the elections, including security and how to encourage voter turnout among Sunnis.

Later Wednesday, al-Yawer urged his fellow Sunnis to "reject the grip of terrorism" and take part in the elections. Al-Yawer is among a number of Sunni Arab politicians who have urged Iraqis to reject insurgent threats.

"Voting is a national duty and a right of every Iraqi," al-Yawer said in a message marking the start of the four-day Islamic holiday Eid al-Adha, which begins Thursday. "From now on, the people must be the source of power."



 
  Today's Top News     Top World News
 

Iraqi clerics help seek Chinese hostages' freedom

 

   
 

Asian tsunami death toll tops 226,000

 

   
 

Nation's net surfers top 94 million

 

   
 

Airlines sign ground service pact

 

   
 

HBV victims face improved job chances

 

   
 

Japan touts high-speed rail caliber

 

   
  Senate panel gives Rice confirmation nod
   
  Japanese government ordered to pay labourers
   
  Sharon agrees to Mideast security talks
   
  Asian tsunami death toll tops 226,000
   
  Four more years of Bush agitates world
   
  Online music sales up tenfold in 2004
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Baghdad car bombs kill at least 26
   
GIs kill 8 after convoy bombed in Iraq
   
Car bomb explosion kills 20 in Baghdad
  News Talk  
  Are the Republicans exploiting the memory of 9/11?  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 欧美影院久久 | 毛片a级三毛片免费播放 | 欧洲免费无线码二区5 | 久久精品国产99国产精品免费看 | 久久综久久美利坚合众国 | 中文字幕一区二区三区精彩视频 | 国产成人精品高清在线 | 日韩一级片 韩国 | 美女被男人桶到嗷嗷叫爽网站 | 免费观看欧美成人禁片 | 免费观看日本高清a毛片 | 欧美精品成人3d在线 | 久草在线新视觉 | 精品国产91久久久久久久 | 成年人免费观看的视频 | 一区二区三区亚洲视频 | 亚欧色视频在线观看免费 | 中文字幕一级片 | 黄色在线播放 | 免费看a级肉片 | 国产va免费精品高清在线观看 | 国内一区 | 亚洲欧美视频一级 | 国产精品久久久久影院色老大 | 日韩在线视精品在亚洲 | 精品欧美一区二区精品久久 | 久久亚洲精品23p | 国产一区二区三区手机在线观看 | 久久99视频精品 | 女人张开腿男人捅 | 亚洲视频在线免费看 | 国产精品久久久久激情影院 | 亚洲欧美日韩国产 | 色碰碰 | 久久中文亚洲国产 | 2020毛片| 亚洲精品视频在线看 | 成人免费一区二区三区在线观看 | 一色屋色费精品视频在线观看 | 亚洲一区二区视频 | 久久久www免费人成看片 |