RAMADI – Two suicide bombings rocked a government compound in Iraq’s western city of Ramadi yesterday, killing 17 people, a deputy interior minister said.
It was the second attack this month on the compound, which houses the provincial council and the police headquarters for Anbar province, and the third bombing there in the past year.
“The death toll is 17 killed and between 50 and 60 wounded,” said Lieut Gen Hussein Kamal, a deputy interior minister.
Anbar governor Qassim Mohammed said the first blast happened when a minibus exploded outside the compound, and the second was caused by a suicide bomber on foot, disguised as a policeman.
“Prime Minister has ordered an investigative committee to be formed due to the repeated targeting of building in Anbar province,” Gen Kamal said.
The sprawling desert province of Anbar was the heartland of a Sunni Islamist insurgency after the 2003 US-led invasion. Its main cities, Ramadi and Falluja, witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the war.
While overall violence in Iraq has dropped from the peak of sectarian warfare in 2006-2007, bombings and attacks still occur daily, and insurgents are still capable of large-scale attacks.
At the site of yesterday’s blasts, pools of blood dotted the ground.
The stumps of one of the suicide bombers’ severed legs lay at the scene.
Debris from wrecked cars littered the site. Ali Mahmoud, a doctor at Ramadi hospital, said hospital records put the toll at 16 people killed, including five policemen, and 52 wounded, including 12 policemen.
The emergency room was filled with patients wounded in the attack.
The hospital was also crowded with people who had responded to an appeal broadcast on mosque loudspeakers to donate blood to help the injured.
“What shall we do to save ourselves? There is nothing left but to make ourselves prisoners in our homes,” said Talib Ali (50), who was at the hospital attending to his son Mohammed, who had been wounded in his abdomen and back.
Hikmet Khalaf, the deputy governor of Anbar, blamed the attack on the Iraqi wing of al-Qaeda.
“The goal of al-Qaeda is clear, to strike at security in the province. This is not the first attack targeting the local government buildings.
“The attackers chose a crowded intersection in Ramadi to kill large numbers of civilians who were headed to the government buildings,” he said.
Earlier this month, Iraqi security forces arrested 39 al-Qaeda militants, including the group’s leadership in Anbar province and one of its top officers in Iraq.
“The arrest of senior al-Qaeda leaders in Anbar . . . a month ago does not mean that al-Qaeda has ended because al-Qaeda has the ability to organise itself in a short period,” said Gen Kamal. – (Reuters)