[NYTr] raq attacks signal start of Ramadan offensive

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The Independent - Sep 17, 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2970789.ece


Iraq attacks signal start of Ramadan offensive

By Kim Sengupta in Baghdad

Bombs, mortars and gunfire left dozens dead and injured in Iraq within
hours of insurgents announcing a Ramadan offensive.

The attacks, three of them in Baghdad, came just days after US General
David Petraeus's report said violence had fallen and President George
Bush declared "ordinary life was returning to the country".

Iraqi police said nine were killed and 12 injured in shootings at
Mansour, one of the busiest parts of Baghdad, when either American
troops or private military contractors opened fire on a crowd after
coming under sniper attack. The US military said the incident was being
investigated.

Those shootings followed a car bomb outside a store on a street crowded
with shoppers, killing three and wounding seven. Soon after, a mortar
landed at the Shaab stadium near the city centre, killing two men.

The attacks in the capital followed a roadside bomb overnight at a
bread queue for Iftar, the evening breaking of fast during the Muslim
holy month. Eleven people, including three children, were killed, and
nine were wounded.

Farah Abdullah, a 34-year-old teacher whose cousin was injured in the
Mansour attack, said: " Why did this happen today? We have not been
able to get out of our neighbourhood for days. We only came out today
to buy food and this happened to us. They [the Americans and Iraqi
police] have all these checkpoints so why didn't they stop these
people?" Elsewhere, 15 people were killed at Muqdadiya, north of
Baghdad, by gunmen who also set a dozen shops alight. Two more were
killed by mortar fire in Samarra.

In Hilla, south of Baghdad, a traffic policeman and his 16-year-old son
were abducted. Their bodies, with marks of torture, were later found
dumped. In Baquba a boy of six was killed by sniper fire.

And at Tuz Khormato, near Kirkuk, a booby-trapped bicycle exploded
outside a café serving food during the traditional fasting hours,
killing at least eight and injuring 19. Rescuers expected the death
toll to rise as they dug through the rubble.

The Sunni insurgent group, the Islamic State of Iraq, which is said to
be linked to al-Qa'ida, had announced it would carry out "offensive
operations" during Ramadan to commemorate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the
Jordanian-born founder of al-Qa'ida in Iraq, who was killed in a US air
strike in June last year.

Meanwhile, the US military captured Fallah Khalifa Hiyas Fayyas
al-Jumayli, a suspect in the assassination of Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, a
key US ally, in Anbar province last Thursday. The Islamic State of Iraq
group threatened to hunt down any other tribal leaders co-operating
with the US. It said it had formed "special security committees to
trace and assassinate prominent [leaders] of agent tribes" who
co-operated with the Americans.

The US military said it had been in talks with some Shia leaders in the
south of the country. American soldiers may help to train their young
men, who may be used to bolster security on the Iranian border.