Gunmen Attack Iraq Police Chief's Home
Kill Wife, 14 in All

MARIAM KAROUNY / Reuters 8jun2007

BAGHDAD — Gunmen attacked the home of a police chief north of Baghdad overnight, police sources said on Friday, killing 14 people including his wife, at least one brother and two sons.

In the northern Iraqi town of Dakok, 19 people were killed in bomb attacks on two Shi'ite mosques just as Friday prayers were ending, Kirkuk police Brigadier-General Sarhat Qader said.

Television footage showed wounded women and children, bloodied and crying, being carried on stretchers into a local hospital.

The attacks were the latest in a spiral of sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis that has killed tens of thousands since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006 and raised fears of civil war.

South of the capital, a minibus packed with weapons and explosives blew up at a bus terminal in a market in the town of Qurna, police said. A doctor at a nearby hospital said 12 people were killed, while police put the death toll at eight.

In Baquba, one of the most dangerous cities in Iraq and the capital of volatile Diyala province, conflicting reports emerged after gunmen attacked the home of police chief Colonel Ali Dilayan Ahmed.

One police source said Ahmed's wife, two brothers and 11 bodyguards were killed and his two sons and two daughters were kidnapped late on Thursday night or early on Friday.

Another source in the Diyala police operations centre said eight people, including Ahmed's wife and one brother, were killed and six people were abducted when gunmen stormed his home after first attacking it with rocket-propelled grenades.

The Diyala source said the bodies of the six taken from Ahmed's home were found on Friday in the Kanaan neighborhood of Baquba. Two bodies at the local morgue were identified as Ahmed's sons, the source said.

A local official, who asked not to be identified, said Ahmed had been directly responsible for the killing of three al Qaeda fighters in Diyala this week. The province is a hotbed of al Qaeda fighters.

Diyala has seen a spike in violence as a U.S.-led crackdown in Baghdad drives militants out of the capital into surrounding towns and cities. The U.S. military has sent an armored force of 3,000 extra troops to combat the violence.

The U.S. military says Sunni Arab and Shi'ite militants have migrated from Baghdad into Diyala and the neighboring province of Salahaddin, where they have launched numerous attacks on civilians and U.S. and Iraqi forces.

Mosques Attacked

A minibus packed with explosives blew up outside a mosque affiliated to fiery Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Dakok, a town about 40 km south of Kirkuk, Qader said.

A suicide bomber on foot also attacked a second Shi'ite mosque, he said. Another 20 people were hurt in the two attacks.

The sectarian violence has left the more homogenous Shi'ite south largely untouched, although there are power struggles between rival Shi'ite militias for control, particularly over Basra, the hub of the southern oil fields.

North of Basra, in the town of Qurna, police said a minibus packed with Katyusha rockets, mortar bombs and fuel blew up in a bus terminal.

The head of Qurna hospital, Doctor Mohammed Nawruz, said the hospital had received 12 bodies and was treating 33 injured.

Major-General Ali Hamadi, the head of the provincial Basra emergency security committee, said the rockets and bombs had "cooked off" in the sweltering heat.

The weapons had been destined for Baghdad, epicenter of the country's sectarian violence between minority Sunnis and majority Shi'ites, Hamadi told Reuters.

He said the manager of the terminal and two others were arrested. The minibus explosion caused a car parked nearby to explode, leading to initial reports that there had been two car bombs, he added.

Additional reporting by Aref Mohammed in Basra

source: 9jun2007

Attack on Police Chief's Home

GARRETT THEROLF / Los Angeles Times 9jun2007

Baghdad — Stumbling efforts to establish law and order in one of Iraq's most violent regions suffered another blow Friday when dozens of gunmen raided the home of Baquba's police chief and killed his wife, two brothers and 11 guards. Four of his children were kidnapped, police said.

The attack came on the same day that explosions in the country's north and south killed 23 people.

Police Chief Col. Ali Jorani, who was not home during the attack, is regarded by U.S. forces as a key ally in attempts to build residents' confidence in law enforcement in Diyala province.

Iraqi and American forces are hoping to gain some control after months during which officers detained scores of military-age men on the basis of little evidence and without providing them access to the courts for extended periods, said Lt. Col. James George, the acting U.S. commander in the region.

But al Qaeda in Iraq and its affiliates have undermined security forces, especially in Baquba, the provincial capital, by killing some police officers and forcing others almost entirely out of some sectors of the city.

The province is now deadlier than it has been at any time since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Proportionately, the province now is the deadliest place in Iraq for U.S. troops, and it trails only Baghdad in the number of U.S. deaths.

Iraqi and American forces are trying to enlist the support of more moderate insurgent fighters, and Jorani is viewed by many residents as an important negotiator.

Jorani's home was invaded by the gunmen before dawn. According to eyewitnesses, the men came in a large number of vehicles but parked them a distance away from the home so that the sound would not raise alarm. The gunmen then approached the home on foot from several points.

The two brothers who were killed were acting as guards, and the abducted children included two sons and two daughters.

Police provided details of the attack but did not make any official comment. Jorani's whereabouts were unknown Friday.

On April 23, the city's previous police chief, Safa Atimimi, was killed with nine others when a car bomb blew up among a crowd of police officers.

In recent weeks, American forces have stepped up security for public officials, including the province's governor, who is the target of frequent attempted assassinations. It was unclear whether those efforts also had been extended to the police chief.

In other violence, two bombs exploded in a bus terminal and a market in the town of al-Qurna, 200 miles south of Baghdad, killing 18 people and wounding 42, authorities said. The area had not been the site of high-profile bombings in recent months.

Salam Mohsin Maliki, a tribal sheik, said the town had not been hit by a major bomb since American troops arrived in the country.

"I think the terrorists targeted al-Qurna to send a message that there is no peaceful place excluded from terrorism," Maliki said.

In northern Iraq, bombs hit a Shiite mosque in a small town near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing five people and wounding 14, police said.

Iraqi police Capt. Abbas Mohammed said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest, as well as by a car bomb.

The town, Daqouq, is predominately populated by Turkmen, Shiite Arabs and Kurds.

In Basra, police said gunmen assassinated police Lt. Ali Uday Zboon as he traveled a highway just outside the city. He served as the director of intelligence operations at a police station.

In Baghdad, seven bodies were found in the streets, apparent victims of sectarian violence, police said.

source: 9jun2007