Car Bomb Kills 8 in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Iraq – A car bomb exploded Tuesday near the Ministry of Education in a busy Baghdad commercial area, killing at least eight people and wounding 29 others, officials said. In the north, another car bomb killed at least four people in the city of Mosul.
Meanwhile, kidnappers released two Iraqi guards who were abducted along with an American, a Nepalese, a Filipino and an Iraqi from the Baghdad compound of a Saudi company on Monday, police and a U.S. Embassy spokesman said.
In Tuesday’s bombing, a car plowed into concrete blast walls and protective barriers surrounding the Education Ministry and exploded in Baghdad’s northern Azamiyah district.
Al-Nu’man Hospital officials said there were six people killed, including one woman. Ten others were wounded, including a two-year old girl
Officials at a second hospital, Baghdad Medical City Hospital, reported two more deaths and 19 injured. Dr. Ra’ed Mubarak said he was unsure whether some of the wounded were transferred from other hospitals.
In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, a car bomb targeting a military convoy carrying an Iraqi general exploded, killing four civilians and wounding at least seven soldiers, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.
Iraqi police said the attack was an assassination attempt on Gen. Rashid Feleih, commander of a special task force in the Iraqi army. He was unhurt in the blast, police said.
Feleih had arrived in the city several days ago to assist Iraqi police and was apparently on his way to a press conference to talk about the role of the task force, according to police and media reports.
The blasts came a day after a dramatic kidnapping in the capital – the latest in the wave of abductions of foreigners.
Gunmen stormed the compound of a Saudi company in the upscale Mansour district, battling with guards in a fight that killed one attacker and one guard. The gunmen then made off with six hostages – an American, a Filipino, a Nepalese and three Iraqis.
Two of the Iraqis – guards from the compound – were left blindfolded and handcuffed in Baghdad’s Hay al-Amil area late Monday, said a police officer involved with the investigation on condition of anonymity.
The men had been beaten, and the kidnappers had told them, “Don’t work with them (foreigners) again or else we’ll kill you,” according to the officer. He said he believed the two were freed because they were from the Fallujah area.
The U.S. Embassy confirmed that an American was abducted but has not identified him. The embassy also identified the nationalities of the others still in custody.
The kidnapped Filipino is believed to be an accountant, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said Tuesday. They said Filipino diplomats in Baghdad were trying to verify reports that initially identified the man as Roberto Torrongoy.
The offices where the hostages were abducted is about 500 yards from the home of two Americans and a Briton kidnapped by militants in September. All three were later killed.
The captives are believed to work for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Company, or Satco, which caters food to the Iraqi army and others.
Neighbors in the area described seeing several cars filled with gunmen, some blocking the road to the house.
“We heard gunfire. I went outside to see what’s going on when a man pointed a machine gun at me and said: ‘Get in or else, I’ll shoot at you,’” said Haidar Karar, who lives in the neighborhood.
From his house, Karar saw “at least 20 attackers, some masked and some not.” He said some were wearing traditional Arab robes and all were carrying automatic weapons.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military command denied media reports that an American soldier had been abducted in the city of Samarra. The military said all troops in the area were accounted for.
Twelve Americans have been kidnapped or are missing in Iraq. At least three of them have been killed – all beheaded in abductions claimed by an al-Qaida-linked group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
More than 160 foreigners have been abducted this year by militants with political demands or by criminals seeking ransom. At least 33 captives have been killed.
The abduction came two days after authorities found the decapitated body of another hostage, 24-year-old Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda. Al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaida in Iraq group said it had kidnapped Koda and demanded a withdrawal of Japanese troops from the country.
Al-Zarqawi’s group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for Koda’s beheading and posted a video on an Islamist Web site of the gruesome death.
The al-Qaida-affiliated group said the Japanese government had offered “millions of dollars” in ransom for Koda’s safe return.
“The world should know, from east to west, north to south that al-Qaida is firm on its jihad, God willing, in spite of the Japanese government offering a ransom of millions of dollars,” the statement said.
Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Akira Chiba denied the claim that payment was offered. “The group’s allegations about a ransom is completely false,” he said. “But the government of Japan will not comment on anything else in the group’s statement.”
U.S. and Iraqi forces are gearing up for a major offensive against Fallujah, the strongest bastion of Sunni insurgents, about 40 miles west of Baghdad.
On Tuesday, the U.S. military reported overnight airstrikes in Fallujah that destroyed a known enemy cache site on the southeast side of the city.
Hospital officials in Fallujah said one person was killed and six others were wounded during clashes. It was unclear whether they were casualties of air or ground attacks.
The order to launch the assault must come from Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi who warned Sunday that his patience with negotiations was thinning.