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Two suicide bombs kill 27 in iraq Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=YQZ1YDT0EIMQWCRBAEZSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=7555601http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=YQZ1YDT0EIMQWCRBAEZSFFA?type=topNews&storyID=7555601
Two Suicide Bombs Kill 27; Al Qaeda Claims Both
Mon Feb 7, 2005 07:52 AM ET
By Gideon Long
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Suicide bombers killed at least 27 people in attacks in two Iraqi cities Monday in the worst bloodshed since the country's historic election eight days ago.
Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for both blasts and vowed to carry out further attacks on "apostates and their masters," an apparent reference to U.S.-led forces and the Iraqis who work with them.
At least 15 civilians were killed and 17 wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded outside the main police headquarters in the town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.
Police said the driver of the car tried to ram the police station but was blocked by a concrete barrier and detonated his explosives near civilians instead.
In the northern city of Mosul, 12 people were killed and four wounded when a suicide bomber targeted a crowd of police officers in a hospital compound.
A large crater was blown in the road and at least five cars were destroyed. Most, if not all, the victims were thought to be police officers waiting to collect their salaries.
"A lion in the martyrs' brigades of al Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq attacked a gathering of apostates seeking to return to the apostate police force in Mosul near the hospital," al Qaeda's Iraqi unit said in a statement posted on a militant Web site.
"The martyr was wearing an explosives belt and blew himself up after he entered the crowd."
Zarqawi's group tried to wreck the Jan. 30 polls but failed, despite sending several suicide bombers to polling centers.
A separate mortar attack on the city hall building in Mosul killed one person and wounded three Monday.
And the Islamist militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said it shot dead an Iraqi translator working for U.S. forces and posted a video of the killing on the Internet. The video showed the hostage appealing to other translators not to deal with U.S. forces before he was blindfolded and shot in the head.
The U.S. military said its troops killed one insurgent and wounded another, possibly fatally, Sunday in response to two attacks on U.S. troops in Baghdad's Sadr City slums.
A U.S. soldier was killed and two were wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, also Sunday.
NO WORD ON EGYPTIANS
There was still no word on the fate of four Egyptian engineers who were kidnapped in Baghdad Sunday as they left their home to work on an Iraqi mobile phone project.
The abduction appeared to be part of an ongoing attempt by militants to disrupt the rebuilding of Iraq and came two days after the brazen kidnapping of an Italian journalist.
Giuliana Sgrena, a reporter with the communist newspaper Il Manifesto, was bundled into a car by gunmen as she conducted interviews on a Baghdad street in broad daylight.
An Islamist militant group that claims to have kidnapped her said Monday it would "soon" decide her fate.
"We in the Jihad Organization are still interrogating the prisoner and the legislative committee ... will issue a ruling in this regard soon," said the statement, signed by the Jihad Organization and posted on the Internet.
The group made no mention of a deadline it had set in an earlier statement which threatened to kill Sgrena by Monday if Italian troops did not leave Iraq.
Italy has been an important ally of the United States in Iraq and has about 3,000 troops in the country, based mostly in the southern city of Nassiriya.
More than a week after Iraq's first multi-party election in 50 years, the result remains unknown, though electoral officials were expected to release partial results from the north and center of the country later which should make things clearer.
The votes counted so far have come mostly from polling centers in the south, where Shi'ites dominate.
A religious Shi'ite coalition is leading by a long way with two-thirds of the vote and, buoyed by its strong showing, is insisting on the prime minister's job in the new government.
The post is currently held by Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'ite whose bloc is in second place with only 18 percent of the vote.
Monday's update could alter that picture and give a clearer indication of how strong a voice the Kurds of northern Iraq will have in the new national assembly.
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