WORLD> Middle East
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WORLD> Middle East
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Bombings kill 31 in Baghdad during morning commute
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-11 11:03 Also Monday, a female suicide bomber believed in to be in her teens attacked a security checkpoint in downtown Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing five people including a local leader of Sunni group opposed to al-Qaida, police said. Fifteen other people were wounded in that explosion.
Violence is down significantly in Baghdad since the worst of the Sunni-Shiite fighting in 2006 and 2007 and the US troop surge of last year. But attacks in Baghdad continue daily, albeit at a lower level than in previous years. A string of explosions Sept. 28 in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad killed at least 32 people and wounded nearly 100. At least 63 people were killed when a car bomb blew up in Hurriyah, a mainly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. US commanders have repeatedly warned that the improved security is fragile because threat groups have been weakened but not defeated. Rival religious and ethnic groups have still not reconciled their political differences that have fueled the nearly six-year conflict. That has raised concern about the ability of Iraqi security forces to maintain security on their own after the Americans leave. US troops are to leave Iraqi cities by June 30 and withdraw entirely from the country by 2012 under a still unratified security agreement. Obama promised during the campaign to remove all American combat troops within 16 months of his inauguration Jan. 20. However, he pledged to consult with the Iraqi government and US commanders before taking decisions on a drawdown. The continuing attacks show the determination of extremist groups to continue the fight against the US-backed government and lie behind US military concern about drawing down the 151,000-member US military force too quickly. |
