Sunni Ally Killed in Iraq Bombing
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BAGHDAD — A double suicide attack outside an agency that cares for Sunni mosques and shrines killed at least 12 people today, including the Sunni leader of a American-backed group fighting Al Qaeda, officials and witnesses said.
A police officer said as many as 14 people died in the twin bombing that killed Riyadh al-Samarrai, which comes a little more than a week after an audiotape of Osama bin Laden was released in which he called for renewed attacks on the mostly Sunni armed groups.
One of al-Samarrai’s guards, who saw the attack, said the suicide bomber walked up to the former police colonel and embraced him before detonating his explosives.
The American military in a statement blamed the double bombing on Al Qaeda in Iraq. It was the deadliest in a series of attacks across the capital that left at least 19 dead.
In the initial bombing, a suicide attacker blew himself up at the entrance to the Sunni Endowment office in Baghdad’s northern Azamiyah district, Brigadier Qassim al-Moussawi said. As people rushed to evacuate the wounded, a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives yards away, he said.
Al-Samarrai’s death was confirmed by a witness who is an employee of the Sunni Endowment, a member of the armed group, who gave his name only as Abu Omar, and by an Iraqi army official.
The American-backed groups — predominantly Sunni Arab fighters who turned against Al Qaeda and are known as “awakening councils” — have been credited with helping reduce violence across Iraq. But they are increasingly becoming targets, with several recent bombings striking their offices and checkpoints. Today’s blast occurred near one of their offices.
The Azamiyah area had been a stronghold of Sunni insurgents since 2003 as well as a safe haven for Al Qaeda in Iraq militants. Local insurgents, however, rose against Al Qaeda last year and joined the American military in the fight against the terror network.
The switch of allegiance by insurgents in Azamiyah was one of the most significant in a series of similar moves across Baghdad’s Sunni neighborhoods. Azamiyah is home to Iraq’s most revered Sunni shrine, the mosque of Imam Abu Hanifa, and many in the area served as officers in Saddam Husssein’s army and security agencies, giving an edge to the insurgency there.
