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Many Said Killed in Two Iraq Bombings

Posted on: Sunday, 1 February 2004, 06:00 CST

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the offices of two rival Kurdish parties packed with hundreds of people celebrating a Muslim holiday in northern Iraq, officials said. There were many casualties, they said.

The attacks occurred at the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Irbil, about 200 miles north of Baghdad. The two rival parties control the Kurdish-dominated provinces of northern Iraq.

Hundreds had gathered at both party offices to mark the start of the four-day Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, a major Muslim holiday.

Irbil Gov. Akram Mintik and the deputy prime minister of the region, Sami Abdul Rahman, were at the building of the Kurdistan Democratic Party at the time of the attack, which took place about 10:45 a.m, KDP official Mohammed Munif said.

He said the two officials were greeting people when the attacker approached them and detonated the explosives strapped around his body. He said many people were killed but this could not be independently confirmed.

The second attack took place at about the same time in the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan across town, PUK spokesman Kadhim Ali said. He said several people were killed and injured in the PUK attack.

U.S. military officials had said they were prepared for any upsurge of violence in connection with the holiday. The start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan last year marked a sharp escalation in violence against the U.S.-led coalition and its Iraqi allies.

The attacks occurred a day after a car bomb outside a police station in the northern city of Mosul killed at least nine people and injured 45.

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