- IRBIL, Iraq -- Two suicide
bombers struck the offices of both U.S.-backed Kurdish parties in near-simultaneous
attacks Sunday as hundreds of Iraqis gathered to celebrate a Muslim holiday.
At least 56 people were killed and more than 235 were wounded, officials
said.
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- The U.S. command in Baghdad put the casualty toll at
56 dead and more than 200 wounded. Kurdish officials said 57 were dead
and the count could exceed 100.
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- 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.
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- This was also believed to have been the first time suicide
attackers wired bombs to themselves and detonated them while on foot, akin
to the suicide attacks by Palestinian militants in Israel.
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- "Those responsible for today's attacks are seeking
to halt Iraq's progress on the path to sovereignty and democracy,"
said L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator for Iraq.
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- There have been a series of suicide car bombings in Iraq
in recent weeks, raising concern that al-Qaida may be behind some of the
attacks. Nobody claimed responsibility. However, a radical Kurdish group,
Ansar al-Islam, operates in the Kurdish region and has been linked by U.S.
officials to al-Qaida.
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- Also Sunday, about six Iraqis were killed when they accidentally
set off an explosion while looting a former Iraqi munitions dump in the
Polish-controlled south-central region of the country, a spokesman for
Polish-led international peacekeepers said.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- The PUK and KDP parties control the Kurdish-dominated
provinces of northern Iraq where most of the country's minority Kurds live.
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- The blast came as Kurdish leaders are pressing to retain
or even expand the Kurds' self-rule region. The demand has raised tensions
with Sunni Arabs in central Iraq, and the attack could increase those divisions.
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- Security guards for both parties said they did not search
people entering for the ceremony because of the tradition of receiving
guests during the Eid festivities.
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- 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 chiefs of the patriotic union,
said Mohammed Ihsan, the minister for human rights for the Kurdish regional
government, and other officials.
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- 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.
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- "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.
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- U.S. military officials had 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.
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- Ihsan said the targeted sites were the parties' branch
offices, about eight miles apart.
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- A state of emergency was declared in the Kurdish area,
and doctors were asked to return from vacation. An urgent appeal has been
issued for blood donations.
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- 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.
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- 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 in the corridors and blood all over
the floor. Outside, women wailed, men sobbed, holding their heads and beating
their heads and chests in grief.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- The latest 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.
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- Wolfowitz said the suicide bombers "are not about
Islam."
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- "They're about their own fanatical view of the world,
and they will kill to try to advance it," he said. "But we're
winning, and they're losing."
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- 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.
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- Hours later, a mortar attack hit a Baghdad neighborhood,
killing five people and wounding four.
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- 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.
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- The mortar landed in the Baladiyaat neighborhood, a predominantly
Palestinian immigrant area, on Saturday night, gouging a crater in the
ground and sending shrapnel flying.
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- Four Palestinian residents were killed, neighbors and
relatives said. The fifth victim was an Iraqi visiting the area, they said.
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- Residents on Sunday carried the bodies of the four Palestinians
in coffins draped in Palestinian flags from a mosque to their homes before
taking them to a cemetery for burial. Some young men in the funeral procession
fired rifles in the air, a traditional Arab gesture.
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- Although it was not known who fired the mortar, angry
mourners blamed the United States.
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- Many women in the procession sobbed. Men chanted "Allahu
Akbar!", or "God is Great!", "America is the enemy
of Allah!" and "A martyr is God's beloved!"
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