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Car bomb kills 11 in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A car bomb has detonated in the southern Iraqi
town of Kufa near a Shiite mosque, killing 11 and wounding 51 others.
Most of the casualties were Iranian Shiite pilgrims who were boarding
several buses outside the Maytham al-Tammar mosque when the explosion
struck on Thursday morning, police said.
Kufa is right outside Najaf, which is about 100 miles (160
kilometers) south of Baghdad.
Kufa -- along with Samarra, Karbala, and Najaf -- is considered a
holy place by Shia Muslims.
The blast came one day after the nation's prime minister called for
an independent Iraqi investigation or at least a joint U.S.-Iraqi
probe into the March killings of a female and three members of her
family as well as her alleged rape.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, speaking at a press conference in
Kuwait, also called for a review of coalition forces' immunity from
Iraqi prosecution, saying such an exemption emboldens those troops.
Former U.S. Army Pvt. Steven D. Green, 21, of the 101st Airborne
Division has been charged with killing four Iraqis -- a man, a girl
and two older females, one of whom he allegedly raped.
Court documents say that Green and other soldiers entered the
family's home in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, and Green allegedly
killed three family members -- including a girl of about 5 -- before
raping a female and shooting her to death.
Different ages have been cited for the rape victim. The FBI affidavit
supporting the arrest puts her age at 25. The U.S. military said she
was 20. Fadhel Saif, the mayor of Mahmoudiya, told CNN he has heard
the victim was 16.
No one else has been charged, but military investigators said they
have linked four other soldiers to the violence.
The killings have sparked an outcry across Iraq and demands for
severe punishment for the perpetrators.
In a scathing statement, the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Sunni political
movement, said the country must take a clear stand against
these "immoral violations."
"The punishment for the perpetrators of this crime should be severe
and they should stand trial in an Iraqi court," the group said.
"The occupation forces have continuously committed crimes and crossed
the line by torturing prisoners, bombing homes, massacring families,
destroying land and property and raiding hospitals.
The Mahmoudiya investigation is the latest in a series involving U.S.
troops alleged to have participated in civilian killings in Iraq.
Besides Green, four other soldiers from the 101st Airborne have been
charged with murder in the killings of three Iraqi prisoners in
northern Iraq in May. Seven Marines and a Navy medic have been
charged with killing an Iraqi man near Hamdaniya in April. Two
soldiers have been charged in connection with the February killing of
an Iraqi man in Ramadi.
A probe also is examining allegations Marines killed up to 24 Iraqi
civilians in Haditha in November after a Marine died in a roadside
blast.
The "acts of a few should not outweigh the deeds of the many," Maj.
Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for coalition forces in Iraq, told
reporters Wednesday.
These forces "put their lives on the line for Iraqi citizens" every
day, he said. He compared the U.S. sense of accountability with
Saddam Hussein's ousted regime, which he said was unaccountable.
Parliament member: Kidnappers make demands
People claiming to have kidnapped an Iraqi lawmaker have contacted
her political party and issued demands for her release, an Iraqi
parliament member said Wednesday.
Tayseer al-Mashhadani reportedly was abducted Saturday in Baghdad.
The purported kidnappers used the lawmaker's cell phone to call the
Iraqi Accord Front, the Sunni political coalition, and demanded a
timetable for the withdrawal of coalition troops, the freeing of all
prisoners and a halt in attacks on mosques.
They said the lawmaker would be killed if authorities didn't meet the
demands within three days, said the parliamentarian, who didn't want
to be identified.
Security zone for Ramadi?
The U.S. military is considering the construction of a security
bulwark -- or mini-Green Zone -- for the government center of Ramadi,
the capital of Anbar province west of Baghdad.
U.S. forces have encircled Ramadi in recent weeks, embarking on
operations to restore control of the city. Anbar, Iraq's largest
province, is largely Sunni, and U.S. and Iraqi forces have battled
insurgents in Euphrates River Valley towns there over the last year.
Referring to Baghdad's heavily fortified sector for Iraqi and U.S.
authorities, Col. Sean MacFarland said, "Well, I don't like to use
the term Green Zone. ... But we are looking at options for the area
around the government center. We're looking for ways to make lemonade
out of lemons."
Other developments
The U.S. military has noted a slight increase in car bombs in the
Iraqi capital and foresees an emphasis on these explosive devices,
said Caldwell, the coalition spokesman, on Wednesday. Caldwell
attributed the rise to the specialty of new al Qaeda in Iraq leader
Abu Ayyub al-Masri. Osama bin Laden's latest audio message identified
the new leader as Abu Hamza al-Muhajer. Senior U.S. military sources
say al-Masri and al-Muhajer are the same person.
An Iraqi suspected of being an associate of a militant linked to the
Al-Askariya Mosque bombing was killed Wednesday in a raid southeast
of Samarra, the U.S. military said. The unnamed Iraqi was an
associate of Haitham al-Badri, suspected of playing a key role in
planning the Shiite shrine's February 22 bombing that triggered a
wave of sectarian violence.
CNN's Arwa Damon and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/06/iraq.main/index.html
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