Stuff brings you the latest New Zealand news and weather plus in-depth sport, business, technology, world, rural, travel, entertainment and motoring news updated daily.
Thursday, 31 August 2006
NZ NEWSPAPERS
NATIONAL NEWS
WORLD NEWS
SPORT
BUSINESS
WEATHER
ENTERTAINMENT
ODDSTUFF
VIDEOS
PHOTOS
CARTOONS
POLITICS
HEALTH
TECHNOLOGY
RURAL
OPINION
TRAVEL
FOOD & WINE
MOTORING
CROSSWORDS
HOROSCOPES
COMPETITIONS
NZ MAGAZINES
SUBSCRIPTIONS
YOUR SAY
MAKE STUFF MY HOME
ABOUT STUFF
FEEDBACK
Place a classified ad in over 40 New Zealand newspapers on Adstuff.
Find job and employment ads on Jobstuff.
Find a property, holiday home, flatmate and flats to let on Propertystuff.
Find a bargain on Stuff on sale.
Find that special partner or match on Personalstuff.
Search news articles from the DomPost, The Press and other New Zealand Newspapers on Archivestuff.
© Fairfax New Zealand Limited 2006. All the material on this page has the protection of international copyright. All rights reserved
SEARCH STUFF WEB
HEADLINES ALERT
     W O R L D   N E W S   S T O R Y   
RELATED LINKS

Iraq bombs kill more than 40

31 August 2006

BAGHDAD: More than 40 people were killed in bomb attacks in Iraq, including 24 at a busy market in Baghdad where insurgents seem intent on defying a major US-backed security clampdown now in its fourth week.

A further 35 people were wounded in the attack on the Shorja wholesale market in central Baghdad, police said. Attacks in recent days have shattered a relative calm this past month.

A bomb in the nearby Karrada district killed two people and wounded 21 around the same time. A bomb went off near a busy fuel station, drawing a police unit in response. Five officers were then wounded in a second explosion, when a car detonated.

Three hours earlier, a bomb apparently left on a parked bicycle blasted a crowd of young Iraqi men outside an army recruiting office, killing 12 people and wounding 38.

Hilla provincial police spokesman Captain Muthanna al-Mamuri said the bicycle appeared to have been left early in the morning, laden with an explosive package, close to the office in the centre of Hilla, 100km south of Baghdad.

It went off around 8am, when a crowd had gathered. It followed several days of heavy bloodshed outside the capital, where US and Iraq troops have mounted a major security crackdown.

Recruitment centres for the Iraqi army and police, key elements of Washington's strategy for pulling out its own troops, have been frequent targets for insurgents from the Sunni Arab minority, including al Qaeda Islamists, who oppose the rise of the Shi'ite Muslim majority in US-backed elections.

Advertisement
Advertisement

The mainly Shi'ite city of Hilla, close to the site of ancient Babylon, is surrounded by Sunni rural areas.

It has seen some of the deadliest sectarian bomb attacks over the past two years, including the bloodiest single blast in Iraq, when 125 people, many of them police recruits, were killed by a suicide car bomber in February 2005.

Despite the danger, young men continue to queue up at police and army recruitment centres, desperate for employment.

A large group of men responding to a newspaper advert for army recruits rioted outside the governor's office in Samawa, 270km (168 miles) south of Baghdad, after being told to come back at the weekend, a witness said.

The witness said the police initially fired warning shots and then shot into the crowd after they began throwing rocks at the building, killing one man and wounding five. Three policemen were also injured in the riot.

CRACKDOWN

US and Iraqi officials say the security crackdown in Baghdad is having an effect, with the murder rate down by half this month over last, when dozens of people a day were being killed in the capital alone, pitching Iraq closer to civil war.

Despite the crackdown, violence has continued in many parts of the capital and around Iraq. A roadside bomb hit a civilian car on a road near Buhriz, north of Baghdad, killing three women, a child and a man, all members of the same family.

The national unity government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki still faces a major task in building up its security forces to take over from some 150,000 mainly American troops.

A suicide car bomber killed 13 police outside the Interior Ministry building in Baghdad on Monday.

Underlining the range of threats to stability, Shi'ite militiamen and Iraqi troops fought an intense battle in Diwaniya 180km (110 miles) south of Baghdad on Monday, leaving at least 30 people dead by official accounts, and possibly dozens more.

Iraq's economy is crippled by the violence, causing among other things an acute shortage of fuel in a country with the world's third largest reserves of crude oil.

Scavengers were caught by an explosion at a ruptured gasoline pipeline near Diwaniya late on Monday. At least 29 were killed, hospital officials said, but the death toll could be more than twice that, they added, because more than 30 people had been reported as missing.




»EMAIL THIS STORY
»PRINTABLE VERSION
»SUBSCRIBE TO FREE HEADLINES
»SUBSCRIBE TO ARCHIVESTUFF


top TOP OF PAGE
MORE TOP STORIES

»

Spurned lover's stabbing frenzy

»

Rampaging bull kills stock agent

»

Liver studies hint vegies suit humans

»

Councillor wants bottle ban due to 'Hizbollah of the South'

»

Insect bite keeps minister off work

»

Oprah's name used in scam

Waikato Times
Taranaki Daily News
Manawatu Standard
The Dominion Post
The Nelson Mail
The Marlborough Express
The Press
The Timaru Herald
The Southland Times
Sunday Star Times
Sunday News

Northland
Auckland
Central North Island
Hawke's Bay
West Coast
Otago

W O R L D   N E W S   H E A D L I N E S

East Timor rebel chief escapes jail - report

Iraq bombs kill more than 40

Chinese sex slave case dismissed by Japan court

Iran enriching uranium ahead of UN deadline

Israel rejects UN appeal to lift blockade

Hurricane John closes in on Mexico

China pursuing 'diplomacy' with Iran

Bells ring to mark Katrina anniversary

JonBenet confession misled prosecutors

Polygamist sect leader held in Nevada

Storm threat to Florida eases

More suspects charged in bomb probe

Space shuttle back on track for Sept launch

Annan looks to double UN troops

Explosion kills 29 petrol scavengers in Iraq

Ambush, bombs kill 20 in rising Afghan violence

Thirteenth suspect charged in airline plot

Ernesto heads for south Florida

Iran's president challenges Bush to TV debate

Uganda military starts truce with LRA rebels

Annan flies to devastated south Lebanon

Sri Lanka army battles rebels

US wants more access to airline passenger data

Sudan ignores pressure over UN troops

JonBenet case against Karr dropped

Ernesto douses Cuba en route to Florida

Unlit runway may have confused pilots

World's oldest person dies at 116

'Al Qaeda rejects' held Kiwi

Three die in new attack on Turkish tourist areas