At least six killed, 16 injured in Iraq violence

Oct 12, 2009, 19:20 GMT

Baghdad - At least six people were killed in fresh attacks across Iraq on Monday, while casualties continued to climb from a triple bombing targeting a conference on national reconciliation a day earlier.

The number of confirmed casualties from three car bombs targeting Iraqi officials gathered for a meeting on national reconciliation in al-Anbar's provincial government headquarters in al-Ramadi, rose to 25 dead and 58 injured on Monday, police told the German Press Agency dpa.

As the casualties mounted, Iraqi security forces acting in concert with advisors from the US military arrested four men suspected of organizing car-bomb attacks in the area around al-Ramadi, including a man suspected of being the cell's ringleader, the US military said in a statement on Monday.

The arrests took place in Taji, just to the north of Baghdad, the US military said.

'These attacks are part of a losing game,' Ismaa al-Dulaimi, who represents al-Ramadi in the Iraqi parliament, told dpa. 'They will not succeed in pulling the city back.'

A tight curfew remained in force in the city, some 120 kilometres west of the capital, Baghdad, for fear of follow-up attacks.

A bomb targeting police General Ahmed Sabri's convoy as it passed through the central Baghdad neighbourhood of al-Karada injured one of his bodyguards and three civilian bystanders, police told dpa. The general was unharmed.

Meanwhile, violence continued to claim lives in Mosul, some 400 kilometres north of the capital.

Three civilians were killed and six others were injured when a roadside bomb exploded in the neighbourhood of al-Thawra, to the west of the city.

The apparent target of that attack was a passing police patrol, though no police officers were hurt in the blast, police said.

In the nearby district of al-Islah al-Zaraai, a family of six, including three small children, were injured when a bomb exploded in their neighbour's house, police said.

Police reported no casualties from the house at the centre of the blast.

Not far away from that explosion, a group of gunmen fatally shot an Iraqi construction contractor, police said. They would not comment on whether the motive for the killing was political or criminal.

To the east of the city, police told dpa that two civilians had been killed when a bomb exploded in the district of al-Tahrir.

A tailor who specializes in sewing police uniforms was wounded by a bomb left in front of his shop on the central Mosul thoroughfare of Aleppo Street, police added.

Mosul and its environs are among the most ethnically diverse areas of Iraq, but also remain among the most prone to violence. Even as the rest of the country has become more safe in recent years, Mosul continues to be the site of near-daily deadly attacks.

Political tensions have been particularly high since January's provincial elections brought an Arab-nationalist government to power on a platform of taking control of the province and its security forces from Kurdish parties.

North of the nearby city of Kirkuk, whose nearby rich oil reserves make it the centre of Arab-Kurdish brinkmanship, Iraqi security forces arrested five suspected al-Qaeda militants from the village of al-Dibs, police there said.

Some 40 kilometres to the south of Kirkuk, in the village of Yirghun al-Kabir, Iraqi and US forces launched a joint raid that netted another three suspected insurgents, police in Kirkuk told dpa.

To the south of Baghdad, near the central Iraqi city of Hilla, Iraqi security forces arrested five men suspected of involvement in 'terrorist crimes' in the area, police there said.

The area has been the site of deadly bomb attacks in recent weeks. On September 18, bombs in Hilla and the nearby town of Mahmudiya killed a total of nine people shopping for food ahead of the evening meal that concludes the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.