Posted at 4:41 a.m., Sunday, January 6, 2008
2 Iraqi soldiers throw themselves on suicide bomber
Associated Press
BAGHDAD — Two Iraqi soldiers threw themselves on a suicide bomber who slipped into a crowd celebrating Iraq's Army Day, but the attacker detonated an explosives vest, killing both soldiers and another nine people, the U.S. military and police said.It was the deadliest of a series of attacks across Baghdad that left as many as 16 people dead.
About two dozen soldiers were in the street celebrating at an Army Day event hosted by a local non-governmental agency pushing for unity in Iraq. Several soldiers and civilians lay in pools of blood after the attacker struck, AK-47 machine guns and shoes scattered on the ground.
Among the dead were four police officers, three Iraqi soldiers and four civilians, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
A U.S. military statement four people were killed.
"These two Iraqi martyrs gave their lives so that others might live," the statement said.
Elsewhere in eastern Baghdad a parked car bomb exploded and four mortars landed near a bus terminal, killing one civilian, police said.
And in northeastern Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded outside a popular restaurant, killing one policeman and two civilians, police said.
Earlier Sunday, a Shiite tribal sheik who was trying to set up a U.S.-backed armed group to combat militias was shot to death in Shaab, one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods and a center for outlaw Shiite fighters, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media. The attack was confirmed by a resident of the neighborhood who asked not to be named saying he feared reprisal.
In other parts of Iraq, so-called "awakening councils" — groups of mostly Sunni anti-al-Qaida in Iraq fighters — have sprung up in the last year. The groups have been credited by American and Iraqi officials for helping cut violence across the country by 60 percent.
Near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, a joint Iraqi-U.S. patrol on Sunday discovered five severed heads, Iraqi military officials said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media. No further details were immediately available.
Near the city of Khalis in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, suspected al-Qaida in Iraq fighters attacked the house of a local sheik and kidnapped him and 13 members of his family, an official from a joint coordinating office said. The day before in the restive province, an American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb, the U.S. military said.
