Bombers Kill at Least 18 in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Two nearly simultaneous car bombs targeted a local police chief and a prominent Sunni sheik working with American forces against Al Qaeda in Iraq in a northern city today, killing at least 18 people, authorities said.Meanwhile, three parked car bombs struck the Iraqi capital. The first hit a commercial area in the Khulani district, killing at least eight and wounding 25 people, including four traffic policemen.The attack came as a call to prayer resounded from the nearby Khulani mosque, itself a target of a June truck bombing that killed 87 people. Bystanders rushed to help the wounded, pull out victims from burning cars and load bodies on carts.A 36-year old vendor of second-hand clothes near Khulani Square, Youssif Mohammed, said the blast targeted minibuses that stop there en route to Baghdad’s eastern Shiite districts. “I saw a fireball and then heard a huge explosion,” Mr. Mohammed said. “Immediately, the place was covered by smoke and dust.”Also in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Shaab, another parked car bomb killed two people and wounded 16, according to police. By early afternoon, a third killed five and wounded four people near a fuel station in the eastern neighborhood of Binok, police said. Four cars were damaged in that blast.The attacks were among a series of bombings in recent days as the terror network apparently steps up its promised Ramadan offensive as the end of the Islamic holy month draws near.At least 24 people were killed in Baghdad and to the north yesterday in car and truck bombings, which are generally blamed on Al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgents. Many of the attacks have targeted Iraqi police officers, who have been frequent targets of the insurgency because they are seen as cooperating with the America and Iraqi governments.In Beiji, a Sunni city 155 miles north of Baghdad, a minibus laden with explosives slammed into the house of a local police chief, while a Toyota Land Cruiser blew up outside the home of a leading member of the local Awakening Council, a group of Iraqis who have turned against extremists in the area.

Bombers Kill at Least 18 in Iraq

Bombers Kill at Least 18 in Iraq

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