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Two car bomb blasts kill 11 in baghdad Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Two Car Bomb Blasts Kill 11 in Baghdad
Two Car Bombs Explode in Baghdad, Killing 11 and Wounding a Dozen; Gunmen Kill Four in Kirkuk
By EDWARD HARRIS
The Associated Press
Apr. 14, 2005 - A pair of car bombs exploded near an Interior Ministry office in the Iraqi capital Thursday, killing at least 11 and wounding over a dozen, officials and witnesses said, the deadliest of several insurgent attacks across the country.
The near-simultaneous explosions in a southeastern Baghdad neighborhood targeted one of the ministry's satellite offices, killing at least 11, an Interior Ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
At least a dozen people injured in the blast were taken to Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, doctors and witnesses said. Three policemen were among the wounded, hospital staff said.
The U.S. military could only confirm that two car bombs exploded in Baghdad.
Near the northern city of Kirkuk, seven gunmen riding in two vehicles fired on a police station shortly after dawn Thursday, killing three police officers and one civilian, police Brig. Sarhat Qadir said.
In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown 80 miles north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded outside a U.S. military installation, injuring nine civilians and setting nearby houses ablaze, police Lt. Col. Amer Ahmed said.
The U.S. military confirmed the car bomb attack in Tikrit but didn't give details.
On Wednesday, an American was shown at gunpoint on a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera television two days after he was kidnapped from a water treatment plant near Baghdad. The station said he pleaded for his life and urged U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq.
In LaPorte, Ind., a yellow ribbon was tied around a tree outside Jeffrey Ake's one-story brick house. The U.S. Embassy said the man on the video appeared to be Ake, a contract worker who was kidnapped around noon Monday.
The video came on a day of bloody attacks, as insurgents blew up a fuel tanker in Baghdad, killed 12 policemen in Kirkuk, and drove a car carrying a bomb into a U.S. convoy, killing five Iraqis and wounding four U.S. contract workers on the capital's infamous airport road.
Ake the 47-year-old president and CEO of Equipment Express, a company that manufacturers bottled water equipment is the latest of more than 200 foreigners seized in Iraq in the past year.
The Al-Jazeera tape showed a man sitting behind a desk with at least three assailants two hooded and one off-camera pointing assault rifles at him. Ake, wearing an open-collar shirt with rolled-up shirt sleeves, was sitting or kneeling behind a wooden desk and holding what appeared to be a photo and a passport.
The station didn't air audio of the video, but said the man asked the U.S. government to begin talks with the Iraqi resistance and save his life. No group claimed responsibility, and there was no way to authenticate the video. Al-Jazeera didn't say how it obtained the tape.
President Bush's press secretary, Scott McClellan, said there would be no negotiating with the kidnappers.
"Any time there is a hostage an American hostage it is a high priority for the United States," he said. "Our position is well known when it comes to negotiating. Obviously this is a sensitive matter."
Ake's company had been working as part of the effort to rebuild Iraq. In 2003, Equipment Express built a machine that filled containers with cooking oil to be used by Iraqis. The company also built a system to provide water bottles to be sold in Baghdad.
Ake is one of at least 14 Americans who have been kidnapped or have gone missing in the past year in Iraq. At least three have been killed. Last April, Nicholas Berg, a 26-year-old businessman, was the first to be kidnapped. He was beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group.
One of the Americans still being held was kidnapped last month along with three Romanian journalists. The Romanian government said Wednesday it was in direct contact with their abductors and that the four were being treated well.
Al-Qaida in Iraq said in an Internet statement that it carried out Wednesday's deadly car bombing on Baghdad's airport road, which the military said damaged two sport utility vehicles and five civilian cars. The authenticity of the statement could not be verified. The explosion left charred and burning rubble strewn across the highway.
The car bomb was among four explosions in Baghdad early Wednesday, the military said. The second was a car bombing that didn't cause any damage, and the third was a "secondary explosion" nearby, the military said.
The military gave no information on the fourth explosion, but twin blasts set a fuel tanker ablaze as it made its way through eastern Baghdad. Clouds of black smoke billowed from the site.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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