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Smoke rises from the site of a bomb attack in Baghdad - Source: Reuters -
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Twin suicide bombs killed at least 24 and wounded more than 100
in Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland and a roadside bomb killed seven
pilgrims returning from a major Shiite Muslim religious
festival.
US forces transported Qassim Mohammed, Sunni governor of the vast
desert province of Anbar west of Baghdad, to the Iraqi capital for
medical treatment, a US military spokesman said after the attacks
targeting him and other officials in Anbar.
Al-Iraqiya state television earlier reported he had been killed in
the attacks just outside the provincial government headquarters in
Ramadi, Anbar's provincial capital.
Hospital and police sources said Sadoon Khraibit, a member of
Anbar's provincial council, and its deputy police commander were
also wounded in the blasts.
A separate, roadside bomb killed seven Iraqi pilgrims who were
returning from a major Shiite Muslim religious festival, police
said.
At least 25 other pilgrims were wounded in the attack in Khalis,
80 km north of Baghdad.
The attacks underscore the tenaciousness of the insurgency despite
a steep drop in overall violence.
Iraq is going through a delicate period before national polls in
March and as US forces prepare to halt combat operations next
year.
Police in Ramadi said the blasts took place in quick succession in
the centre of the city, 100 km west of Baghdad, leaving pools of
blood and charred vehicles near the heavily fortified provincial
building.
Police Colonel Jabbar Ajaj said a suicide bomber detonated
explosives in a vehicle in the initial blast, followed shortly by a
second suicide attack by a bomber on foot.
Many of the at least 105 people wounded were members of Iraqi
security forces.
The first blast went off near the governor's convoy as he made his
way to work, police said.
Mohammed was at the site of the blast inspecting the damage, a
source at the Ramadi hospital reported, when the second attacker
struck.
Iraqiya said one of the bombers was a man working as a bodyguard
for the governor.
"I was walking towards some shops right next to the provincial
government compound when a huge explosion happened. I flew through
the air, and I woke up in the hospital," said Ahmed Mahmoud, a
30-year-old Ramadi resident.
Sunnis divided ahead of elections
At the Ramadi hospital, doctors crowded around injured policemen
lying on stretchers.
One of the wounded was a tiny baby, its diaper and white sweater
dotted with blood.
Anbar, the heart of Iraq's Sunni Islamist insurgency following the
2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein, became a relatively secure place
after local tribal leaders threw their support behind grassroots
guard units battling al Qaeda in 2006.
But a spate of recent attacks has raised fears violence will
increase there ahead of the March elections.
Many from Iraq's Sunni minority, dominant under Saddam Hussein,
fear the Shiite majority could edge them out of power for
good.
Sunnis have not formed a united electoral bloc as they have in past
elections, and have instead reached out across sectarian lines to
form alliances with Shiites and others.
The move may reflect a strategic calculation about voters'
dissatisfaction with ruling religious parties and a degree of
disarray among the Sunni leadership.
The Anbar attacks follow a series of large-scale bombings in
Baghdad, which Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has blamed on
al Qaeda and Saddam's Baath party.
"Al Qaeda and other groups are trying to destabilise security in
the province ahead of the elections. Unless the police does its job
well, these kind of challenges are going to become even bigger,"
said Anbar council head Jassim Mohammed.
