Nine killed in Baghdad mortar attack
Source: Reuters
(Adds details) BAGHDAD, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Mortar bombs struck a petrol station in eastern Baghdad at dawn on Sunday, killing at least nine people and wounding 11, Iraqi police said. The police said nine mortar bombs landed in the area, destroying 13 cars as people lined up for fuel. Several mortar bombs landed at another petrol station in a nearby district, wounding six people. Baghdad residents often queue for hours at petrol stations for fuel, and insurgents have targeted them. Suicide bombers attacked two petrol stations last Wednesday, killing 70 people. On Saturday, U.S. forces said they had killed the al Qaeda leader who masterminded a bombing that destroyed the twin minarets of the Shi'ite Golden Mosque in Samarra in June. An earlier bombing of the mosque in February 2006 triggered a wave of tit-for-tat sectarian violence between Iraq's Shi'ite majority and Sunni Arab minority, once dominant under Saddam Hussein, that has killed tens of thousands. The U.S. military said Haitham al-Badri, al Qaeda leader in Salahuddin province, was killed by U.S. forces on Aug. 2. The Iraqi government has in the past blamed Badri for the February 2006 mosque attack.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
