Artykuły

Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"

Multiple bombings rock Iraq


Monday May 23, 2005

At least three people were killed and more than 70 injured today when a car bomb exploded outside a busy restaurant in northern Baghdad at lunchtime.
The bomb exploded outside the Habayibna restaurant, in a three-storey building in the Talibia district of the Iraqi capital. No other details were immediately available.
Earlier today a number of other suicide bombings and attacks left at least 10 people dead across the country.
In one attack, an Iraqi general who was one of the key figures in charge of controlling the insurgency was assassinated. General Wael al-Rubaei, director of the national security ministry's operations room, was killed with his driver when gunmen in two cars opened fire on his car in central Baghdad's Mansour district.
In Baghdad's southern Dora neighbourhood unknown gunmen killed a policeman as he was heading to work at a local court, police said.
In the town of Tuz Khormato, about 125 miles north of Baghdad, five Iraqis were killed and 13 injured when a suicide bomber blew up a truck after driving it into a crowd of people waiting for a council office to open.
In another incident, two Iraqis were killed after three suicide bombers tried to attack a US military base in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad. Two of the suicide bombers detonated car bombs at about 7am local time outside the US base in the centre of the city and a third insurgent with an explosives-packed vest was shot by soldiers. The third assailant detonated his vest and killed himself; no one else was injured.
The car bomb attacks injured 23 people, including women, children and three US soldiers. US and Iraqi security forces quickly cordoned off the area, blocking all vehicle and pedestrian traffic out of apparent fear that further terrorist attacks could be launched against the base.
Yesterday, another senior government official, trade ministry auditing office chief Ali Moussa, was killed.
Insurgents have stepped up attacks since a new government was announced in late April, killing more than 500 people in suicide bombings, assassinations and ambushes.
State employees and security forces have been prime targets of insurgents trying to disrupt the US-backed Iraqi government.
Almost 300 suspected insurgents were detained overnight in the largest joint US-Iraqi military offensive in Baghdad, the US military said today. The offensive, known as Operation Squeeze Play, is focusing on western Baghdad's Abu Ghraib district and targeting militants suspected of attacking the US prison there, which was at the centre of an abuse scandal involving US personnel.
Seven Iraqi battalions backed by US forces launched the offensive late yesterday. No specific troop numbers were provided, but at least 2,000 soldiers are thought to be involved. US troops distributed leaflets throughout the area to warn about the offensive.
The military said 285 "suspected terrorists" had been detained in the last 24 hours. The operation appeared to be winding down early today, according to eyewitnesses, although Police Lieutenant Akram al-Zubayee said Iraqi and US forces fought gun battles with insurgents in Abu Ghraib's residential district and the nearby village of Haswa, with an unspecified number of casualties.
The government also reported today that Iraqi security forces had captured the nephew of a trusted Saddam Hussein aide who is one of the country's most wanted men.
Muthanna Shihab Ahmed al-Douri, who is suspected of participating in bomb attacks, was detained last week in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. The announcement said Mr al-Douri's mother was the sister of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and longtime Saddam confidant. In other developments, the US military said today that another three soldiers were killed and one was injured in two separate attacks yesterday in Mosul, 225 miles north-west of Baghdad. It had previously been reported that two US soldiers had been killed in northern Iraq yesterday. As of today, at least 1,634 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003.
Meanwhile, three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Iraq are expected to return home later today, a day after their release.
Television reporter Marie Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Miscoci, of Prima TV, and Ovidiu Ohanesian, a reporter from the daily newspaper Romania Libera, were taken captive on March 28 in Baghdad with their guide, American-Iraqi Mohammed Monaf.
The four were freed yesterday and are currently in the custody of Romanian authorities in Baghdad.

ambush- zasadzka
assailant- napastnik
casualty- ofiara
confidant- powiernik
cordon off- otaczać kordonem
custody- areszt, zatrzymanie
detain- zatrzymywać, opóźniać, wstrzymywać
developments- wydarzenia, bieg spraw
eyewitness- naoczny świadek
head to- zmierzać do, zmierzać w kierunku
insurgency- powstanie, rebelia
insurgent- powstaniec
step up- wzmagać





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