A car bomb exploded yesterday in front of the home of a senior Iraqi security official, killing at least five people and destroying several vehicles on an east Baghdad street, the US military and Iraqi police said.
The blast damaged the home of Abdul-Jabbar Youssef al-Sheikhli, one of three deputy interior ministers and a member of the Shiite Muslim Dawa party. A ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said al-Sheikhli received head and chest injuries and was in stable condition at a nearby hospital.
PHOTO: AP
It was the second fatal car-bombing in Baghdad this week. On Monday, a suicide car bombing killed the president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Izzadine Saleem, and about six other people near the headquarters of the US-run coalition in the capital. Saleem was also a member of the Dawa party. The latest blast occurred about 200m from the headquarters of the former Iraqi general security service.
Police and US military officers at the scene said the five dead included four Iraqi policemen and a female neighbor who died in her home.
US Army Captain Brian O'Malley said the blast occurred at about 8:05am and was caused by a "vehicle-borne improvised explosive device."
It was unclear whether the bomb was detonated by a suicide attacker.
Interior Minister Samir Shaker Mahmoud al-Sumeidi visited the site and was mobbed by distraught neighbors who screamed at him to "come and see what happened to our homes."
"God does not accept this," one man shouted.
Al-Sumeidi described the attack as a "terrible crime" and promised to catch those responsible.
"It would seem that the criminals do not want the law to prevail or the security men to implement it," he said.
"I want every honorable man in this country to condemn this crime," he said.
More than an hour after the blast, smoke rose from several wrecked cars, and debris was scattered in the street. The explosion also knocked down part of a wall.
Three palm trees in the garden of the deputy minister's home were blackened from the explosion. Blood stains could be seen inside the two-storey house and on the street.
US soldiers and Iraqi policemen, one of whom appeared to have a fresh cut on his face, milled around. Two US soldiers tended to an injured person lying on the ground.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in