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borgslayer
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Joined: 27 Aug 2003
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Location: Las Vegas
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 Thu Jun 24, 2004 2:55 pm 92 killed in multiple attacks in Iraq over 300 Wounded |
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| Quote: | 92 killed in multiple attacks in Iraq
Group linked to al-Zarqawi claims responsibility
Thursday, June 24, 2004 Posted: 3:46 PM EDT (1946 GMT)
An Iraqi police officer climbs over rubble of a destroyed police station in Ramadi that was attacked Thursday.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A wave of insurgent bombings and ambushes in key Iraqi cities Thursday killed 92 people, officials said, and terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has emerged as a key suspect.
Violence rocked Baghdad, Fallujah, Ramadi, Mosul and Ba'qubah.
The assaults come six days ahead of the scheduled handover of power from the U.S.-led coalition to Iraqis.
About 285 people were wounded in the attacks, according to Iraqi police and health officials.
Hours after the near-simultaneous strikes, the military wing of the Unification and Jihad, a group linked to al-Zarqawi, issued a statement on a Web site that claimed responsibility for attacking five police stations in Mosul; two locations in Ba'qubah, one in Ramadi and another in Baghdad. (Map)
The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.
The United States had predicted an increase in violence would accompany the June 30 transfer of power.
The wave of attacks follows strikes Saturday and Tuesday by U.S. forces on "safe house" targets in Fallujah, which killed about 38 people. The coalition believes al-Zarqawi followers were staying in these safe houses.
In insurgency violence last week, 35 people were killed in a car bombing near a Baghdad army recruiting station. On Tuesday, militants beheaded a South Korean civilian, who had been seized last week by a group believed to be linked to al-Zarqawi.
Al-Zarqawi is a Jordanian-born Islamic militant U.S. officials say has close ties to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
U.S. officials say al-Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for attacks on U.S. troops, Iraqi civilians and others, including the August 2003 bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.
They also blame him for the videotaped beheading of American businessman Nicholas Berg in May. The U.S. government has put a $10 million price on his head.
Of the 92 dead, Iraqi health and police officials told CNN, 65 were killed in the northern city of Mosul; nine were killed in Al Anbar province, which included Ramadi and Fallujah; and 13 died in Diyala region, which includes Ba'qubah. Five others are dead in Baghdad.
Hospital and coalition officials say the northern city of Mosul has been virtually paralyzed. The assault on Mosul began shortly after 9 a.m. when three simultaneous car bombs hit separate targets.
In Ba'qubah, insurgents attacked a police station, and a gunbattle ensued. Armed insurgents freely roamed parts of the city, a local politician said. U.S. forces responded with airstrikes on insurgent positions in the city north of the Iraqi capital, according to military officials with the 1st Infantry Division.
In Ramadi, a coalition military official said bodies were being pulled out of the rubble.
At a Baghdad checkpoint, a suicide bomber detonated himself in a southern section of Baghdad called Abu Dasheer.
And in Fallujah, U.S. forces battled insurgents and military officials, reporters said. According to journalists, American forces faced fierce resistance as they tried to enter a eastern industrial section of the city around 8 a.m. (12 a.m. EDT).
The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said its actions in Fallujah were "strictly defensive in nature."
Allawi shrugs off death threats
Iraq's Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi shrugged off two death threats delivered via television and the Internet, saying he remained determined to bring democracy to Iraq.
The latest threat, contained in a videotape broadcast by the Arabic-language television station Al-Arabiya, came from a previously unidentified group that called itself Group of Jihad and Resistance. (Full story)
Along with the threat to kill Allawi, the voice on the audiotape threatened to continue attacks against coalition and Iraqi government targets.
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/06/24/iraq.main/index.html
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