Iraq bus bombing kills nine passengers
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus near Mosul on Tuesday, killing nine passengers near Iraq's main northern city which is regarded as an Al-Qaeda stronghold, a security official said.
In another brazen daylight attack, a group of armed men kidnapped 21 male passengers travelling in two minibuses in the restive province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad, police said.
The suicide attack on the bus near Mosul came after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki promised a "decisive battle" against Al-Qaeda fighters in the area last month.
A major crackdown in the Baghdad region in which US troop reinforcements have joined Iraqi forces has led to a sharply reduced militant presence around the capital and Mosul now has a reputation as Al-Qaeda's last urban bastion in Iraq.
Whereas in other cities the militants have been forced underground and are only able to carry out hit and run attacks, in Mosul both Iraqi and foreign fighters are able to operate openly in many districts applying their strict version of Sunni Islam with a rod of iron.
Tuesday's bus bomber struck near a checkpoint in an area called Smeirath, 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Mosul, Iraqi army Lieutenant Colonel Jalal Dosky told AFP.
The US military was able to confirm only eight dead and eight wounded in the bombing and said it suspected Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).
"During a stop at a routine checkpoint, the Iraqi army searched passengers for their identification cards. The suspected AQI suicide bomber exited the bus and then detonated the bomb," it said.
In the Diyala attack, gunmen set up a fake checkpoint in an area called Al-Adaim north of the provincial capital Baquba.
"At about 10:00 am (0700 GMT) several armed men stopped a minibus carrying 11 men and three women at the checkpoint," police Lieutenant Colonel Najim al-Sumaidaie told AFP. "They released the women but abducted the men."
Sumaidaie said minutes later the kidnappers stopped another minibus and abducted the 10 men on board. "All 21 men were taken away in the same minibuses."
He said the two minibuses had been on their way to Baghdad from the northern oil city of Kirkuk.
South of the capital, police said they had arrested five suspects in a suicide bombing which killed 48 Shiite pilgrims in the town of Iskandiriyah on Sunday.
Following a tip-off, police raided a residential complex in the town at dawn.
The men "are suspected of involvement in the terrorist attack on pilgrims on Sunday," police Lieutenant Shaker al-Tamimi said.
Another 68 people were wounded when the bomber detonated a vest stuffed with explosives at a rest stop in the town used by pilgrims travelling to the central shrine city of Karbala for the annual ceremony of Arbaeen.
The US embassy in Baghdad and US-led forces in Iraq condemned the attack in a joint statement on Monday, and blamed it on Al-Qaeda.
Tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims from across Iraq head to Karbala for the festival, most of them on foot, making them an easy target for Sunni militants.
Arbaeen commemorates the 40th day after the seventh century slaying of Imam Hussein and pilgrims heading to the festival have been targeted in the past.
US commanders say both Iraqi and coalition forces have been manning additional foot patrols and checkpoints in a bid to protect the pilgrims.
