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Dual foot suicide bombings kill 57 Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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57 Killed in Dual Suicide Bombings
Reported By: The Associated Press
Last Modified: 2/1/2004 10:35:36 AM
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) -- Two suicide bombers struck the offices of two U.S.-backed Kurdish parties in near-simultaneous attacks Sunday as hundreds of Iraqis gathered to celebrate a Muslim holiday. At least 57 people were killed and more than 235 were wounded, officials said.
One Kurdish minister said the death toll could exceed 100.
The attack was believed to be the deadliest since an Aug. 29 car bombing in the holy city of Najaf killed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim and more than 100 others as they emerged from Friday prayers.
The attack also was believed to have been the first in which the suicide attackers wired bombs to themselves and detonated them while on foot, akin to the suicide attacks by Palestinian militants in Israel.
There have been a series of suicide car bombings in Iraq in recent weeks. Nobody has claimed responsibility for the Sunday attack, but a radical Kurdish group, Ansar al-Islam, operates in
the Kurdish region and has been linked to al-Qaida by U.S. officials.
Also Sunday, about 20 Iraqis were killed when they accidentally set off an explosion while looting a munitions dump in the Polish-controlled south-central region of the country, a spokesman
for Polish-led international peacekeepers said.
The blast occurred after midnight in the desert about 112 miles southwest of Karbala after Iraqis broke into the munitions storage site, military spokesman Col. Robert Strzelecki said. Karbala is
about 60 miles southwest of Baghdad.
The dump, formerly used by Saddam Hussein's army, consists of about 100 bunkers spread over a wide area and contained munitions such as artillery shells and rockets, he said.
"I suspect that those people who entered the bunkers probably wanted to steal the munition and sell it, perhaps to terrorist groups," Strzelecki told The Associated Press. "I think it was caused by human negligence."
Dozens, if not hundreds, of Iraqis have been killed in recent months while looting munitions dumps.
The suicide attacks at the Irbil offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan occurred as party leaders were receiving hundreds of visitors to mark the start
of the four-day Muslim holiday, Eid Al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice.
Security guards for both parties said they did not search people because of the tradition of receiving guests during the Eid festivities.
The attack was a devastating blow to the political leadership of the Kurdish minority, the most pro-American group in Iraq. The dead included the governor of the region, ministers in the local administration, several senior officials and two deputy PUK chiefs, said Mohammed Ihsan, the minister for human rights for the Kurdish regional government, and other officials.
Irbil city morgue director Tawana Kareem told the AP that 57 bodies were brought to the morgue and "figures are increasing."
At least 235 people were admitted to the city's three hospitals with injuries, medical sources said.
"These figures are estimates but I believe about 60 people were killed at the PUK and about 80 at the KDP. There are a tremendous number of injured," Ihsan said.
U.S. military officials said they were prepared for any upsurge of violence in connection with the holiday. The start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan last year marked a sharp escalation in violence against the U.S.-led coalition and its Iraqi allies.
Ihsan said the targeted sites were the parties' branch offices, about eight miles apart.
A state of emergency was declared in the Kurdish area, and doctors were asked to return from vacation. An urgent appeal has been issued to residents to donate blood.
The dead include Irbil Gov. Akram Mintik, Deputy Prime Minister Sami Abdul Rahman, Minister of Council of Ministers Affairs Shawkat Sheik Yazdin and Agriculture Minister Saad Abdullah, Ihsan said.
Irbil is about 200 miles north of the capital, Baghdad.
The PUK and KDP parties control the Kurdish dominated provinces of northern Iraq where most of the country's minority Kurds live.
Thousands of people crowded outside Irbil's hospital looking for loved ones but were kept out by police. At the Rizgari Hospital morgue, bodies covered with blankets lay in the corridors and blood soaked the floor. Outside, mourners wailed and beat themselves in grief.
Irbil houses the Kurdish parliament. Under U.S. led aerial protection, Iraqi Kurds, ethnically distinct from the majority Arabs, have ruled a Switzerland-sized swath of northern Iraq since
the end of the Gulf War more than a decade ago.
The attacks coincided with a visit to Baghdad by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who arrived on Saturday to boost the morale of troops. Wolfowitz, whose visit was not disclosed before his arrival, was planning to watch the Super Bowl with U.S. troops Sunday, but it was not known where.
The suicide bombings came a day after a car bomb outside a police station in the northern city of Mosul killed at least nine people and wounded 45. It was unclear whether that attack was a suicide bombing or whether the driver fled before the explosion.
U.S. officials have said recent vehicle bombings and suicide attacks in Iraq bear the mark of al-Qaida.
Hours later, a mortar attack hit a Baghdad neighborhood, killing five people and wounding four.
Also Saturday, three U.S. soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division were killed in a roadside bombing near the northern oil center of Kirkuk. Their deaths brought to 522 the number of American service members who have died since the Iraq war began March 20.
The last major attack in Irbil occurred Dec. 24 when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-packed car in front of the Kurdish Interior Ministry, killing four civilians and wounding 101.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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