BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber killed at least 28 people in an attack on tribal leaders and security officials in western Baghdad yesterday, the second big attack in the Iraqi capital in three days.
Security spokesman Maj Gen Qassim Moussawi said the bombing killed 28 people and wounded 28 others as dignitaries toured a crowded market in the Abu Ghraib district.
But other official sources put the toll as high as 33 dead and 52 wounded, saying that security personnel, civilians, women and schoolchildren were killed.
Officials have often blamed al-Qaeda or militants loyal to Saddam Hussein’s banned Baath Party for such blasts.
Al-Baghdadiya, an independent television station, said two of its journalists were killed in the attack.
A journalist at Al-Iraqiya state television said four colleagues were wounded.
“We heard a huge explosion, then there was haphazard shooting on us from somewhere far away and the army fired back,” said Iraqiya cameraman Raed Qassim, a friend of both killed journalists who carried a wounded colleague to a local hospital.
“I am in shock, I can’t eat, I can’t sleep. I keep seeing images of my friends dying and I can’t help them,” he said.
Abu Ghraib mayor Shakir Fiza said a senior Iraqi interior ministry official was headed to a tribal reconciliation conference in Abu Ghraib’s municipal headquarters.
The official got out of his car and began talking to people at the market when the bomber struck.
While violence has dropped sharply in Iraq since the height of the sectarian and insurgent killing unleashed by the US-led invasion in 2003, insurgents still stage regular attacks, especially in the volatile northern city of Mosul.
The improvement in security has been particularly effective in Baghdad, where Iraqis are cautiously resuming a more normal life.
Yet violence continues to strike there. On Sunday, a suicide bomber killed 28 people at the main police academy.
The latest attack took place days after the United States said it would reduce its roughly 140,000 troops before a full withdrawal date by the end of 2011, which has led some to wonder whether local forces will be ready to prevent Iraq sliding back into largescale war. – (Reuters)