Baghdad Bombs Kill 21, Injure 96
Two car bombs ripped through Baghdad on Monday killing 21 people.
In the first explosion, a four-wheel-drive vehicle packed with explosives detonated outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of the U.S. Embassy and key Iraqi government offices, killing at least 15 people and wounding 81.
"I was thrown 10 meters away and hit the wall," said Wissam Mohammed, 30, who was visiting a nearby recruiting center for Iraqi security forces when the first explosion happened, at about 9 a.m. He lay in a bed at Yarmouk Hospital, his right hand broken, his head wrapped in bandages and his clothes stained with blood.
The second car bomb exploded at 9:45 a.m., near a number of major hotels. American and Iraqi forces opened fire after the blast, but it was not immediately clear what they were shooting at, witnesses said. Six people were killed and 15 wounded.
Both bomb sites are in areas that have been the target of previous suicide attacks which have killed dozens of people. No Americans are believed to have been killed or injured in either of the Baghdad bombs.
In other recent developments:
In rebel-held Fallujah, American warplanes unleashed strikes on two houses early Monday, killing at least 11 people, including women and children, hospital officials said.
The military, which regularly accuses hospitals of inflating casualty figures, said the strikes targeted followers of Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and their associates.
A strike in the central al-Jumhuriyah area killed nine people, including three women and four children, said Dr. Adil Khamis of Fallujah General Hospital. Twelve were injured, including six women and three children, he said. They include residents of neighboring houses that were damaged in the blast.
A second strike in the city's southern Al-Shuhada neighborhood killed two more people, Khamis said.
The military said a "precision strike" at about 1 a.m. hit a building where about 25 insurgents were moving weapons on the outskirts of Fallujah.
Intelligence sources said insurgents were using the site to store weapons and conduct training, the military said in a statement.
"Throughout the operation, multiple measures were employed to ensure no innocent civilians were present when the strikes took place," the statement said.
Shortly before 3:30 a.m. coalition forces struck a site where members of al-Zarqawi's network were believed to be meeting, another military statement said.
It was the latest in weeks of strikes in the city west of Baghdad aimed at groups with links to terrorists, particularly al-Zarqawi's network. Followers of the Jordanian militant have claimed responsibility for a string of deadly bombings, kidnappings and other attacks across the country.
Monday's violence comes a day after Iraqi security forces emerged to patrol Samarra following a morale-boosting victory in this Sunni Triangle city of Samarra.
American and Iraqi commanders have declared the operation in Samarra, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, a successful first step in a major push to wrest key areas of Iraq from insurgents before January elections.
But locals were angered by the civilian death toll.
Of the 70 dead brought to Samarra General Hospital since fighting erupted, 23 were children and 18 were women, hospital official Abdul-Nasser Hamed Yassin said Sunday. Another 160 wounded people also were treated.
"The people who were hurt most are normal people who have nothing to do with anything," said Abdel Latif Hadi, 45.
U.S. military officials have signaled they plan to step up attacks in key Iraqi cities this fall - partly as a way to pressure insurgents into negotiating with Iraqi officials.
"I have personally informed (Fallujah residents) that it will not be a picnic. It will be very difficult and devastating," Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer said Sunday on the Al-Arabiya television network.
But he said Iraqi troops have to establish a presence in all cities.