Eight killed in Baghdad bomb blast
Two US soliders are among those killed in Baghdad in the past 24 hours
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Thursday, 14, Sep 2006 11:18
At least eight people have been killed and a dozen injured following a car bomb attack near a passport office in central Baghdad.
An interior ministry spokesman told reporters the blast had occurred just off Alawiya Street in one of the Iraqi capital's busiest districts. Police lieutenant Bilal Ali Majid confirmed four police officers were among the injured.
In another car bomb attack this morning, one civilian was killed and 13 injured when rebels targeted a police patrol in a Shia neighbourhood in the north of the city.
And in Baqouba, 35 miles north-east of Baghdad, two police officers were shot dead by a group of gunmen. Three other people were also killed in the incident.
Meanwhile, the body of a journalist has been found in the eastern Sadr City, bringing the total number of Iraqi journalists killed since 2003 to 174.
Today's violence comes after 24 hours in which nearly 100 bodies were found throughout Baghdad. Many of them had been bound, tortured and decapitated, reportedly by sectarian militant groups, referred to as death squads.
Thirty-nine people, including two US soldiers, were also killed yesterday in a string of car bomb, mortar and gunfire attacks.
This horrific upsurge in violence has led to renewed demands for Iraq's president Jalal Talabani and prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to take steps to disarm militias.
Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Iraqi Accordance Front political party, told the Associated Press: "We hope the government carries out what it pledged and disbands militias and considers them terrorist organisations.
"Their presence is deteriorating the situation and bringing more troubles to the political atmosphere. We call upon all religious authorities to raise their voices and demand militias be disarmed."