Attacks on Iraq Mosques, Hotel Kill at least 82
PakistanTimes.net Monitoring Desk

BAGHDAD (Iraq): Suicide bombers struck in eastern Iraq and the capital on Friday, killing at least 74 Shiite worshippers near the Iranian border and eight Iraqis at a hotel — the second attack against a compound housing Western media and contractors in less than a month.

The bloodshed came as the United Nations' top human rights official added her voice to calls for an international inquiry into allegations that Iraq's U.S.-backed government tortures and abuses prisoners — including Sunni Arab insurgents.

The attack in the town of Khanaqin was ominous because it took place in a largely peaceful area about six miles from Iran. So few incidents have occurred there Iraqi authorities believe they can soon take over security responsibilities from the U.S.-led coalition. That assumption has now been called into question.

A security officer in Khanaqin who asked not to be identified said four people were arrested in the mosque attacks, including a would-be third suicide bomber noticed near the scene. Three of the four were strangers to the town.

Khanaqin police had received information from the authorities in nearby Baqouba about a suspected suicide bomber in the town, but it came just minutes before the attacks, he added.

Heavy Damage

The bombs heavily damaged the Sheik Murad mosque and tore down part of the Grand Mosque's roof. It was the deadliest attack since Sept. 29, when three suicide car bombers struck in the mostly Shiite town of Balad just north of Baghdad, killing at least 99 people.

Salem Ali Mohammed, 32, said he was in the Grand Mosque's washroom when he heard a strong explosion. "I thought a rocket had hit the mosque," he said. "I walked toward the prayer room and saw that the ceiling had collapsed and dead bodies were everywhere."

Kamran Ahmed, director of the Khanaqin General Hospital, said 74 people were killed and at least 100 were wounded at the mosques, which are more than a half-mile apart in the largely Kurdish town about 90 miles northeast of Baghdad. American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division sent medical specialists and supplies to the town.

In Baghdad, the attack on the Hamra hotel began about 8:12 a.m. when a white van exploded along the concrete blast wall protecting the compound, blowing a hole in the barrier. Less than a minute later, a water tanker packed with explosives plowed through the breach in an apparent bid to reach the hotel buildings.

But the driver — apparently blocked by smoke and debris — detonated his vehicle just inside the barrier, destroying several nearby homes and blowing out windows in the hotel. Eight Iraqis were killed and at least 43 people were wounded, officials said.

"What we have here appears to be two suicide car bombs (that) attempted to breach the security wall in the vicinity of the hotel complex, and I think the target was the Hamra Hotel," U.S. Brig. Gen. Karl Horst told reporters at the scene.

Mike Boettcher of NBC News, who was in the Hamra when Friday's bomb exploded, said on the "Today" show that "we were blown out of our beds."

"We got down on the floor and crawled, and then the second bomb hit, and we were blown back," Boettcher said. "To be in the middle of this — not a pleasant experience, but I feel a lot more sorry for those people who were killed just outside our compound, who didn't have that blast wall to protect them. That saved our lives."

Sa'ad al-Izzi, an Iraqi journalist with The Boston Globe, said he awakened "to a huge explosion which broke all the glass and displaced all the window and doors frames."

The latest attacks in Khanaqin and Baghdad have brought to at least 1,617 the number of Iraqis killed in suicide attacks since the Shiite-led government took power April 28, according to a count. At least 3,429 have been wounded.

Rising Tensions

The attack against the Shiite worshippers occurred amid rising tensions between Iraq's majority Shiite and minority Sunni communities. Tensions escalated after last weekend's discovery of 173 malnourished detainees — some bearing signs of torture — in an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad seized by American soldiers.

Most of the prisoners are believed to have been Sunni Arabs, and the discovery lent credence to allegations of abuse leveled against troops controlled by the Shiite-led Interior Ministry.

Interior Minister Bayn Jabr said the torture allegations were exaggerated, but the government has agreed to investigate lockups nationwide.

Sunni Arab politicians and clerics have demanded an international investigation and have said they would not accept findings of any probe in which the Iraqi government played a role.

Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, endorsed calls for an international probe "in light of the apparently systemic nature and magnitude of that problem."

"I urge authorities to consider calling for an international inquiry," the former U.N. war crimes prosecutor said in Geneva.

Also Friday, U.S. and Iraqi troops killed 32 insurgents in fighting around Ramadi, capital of Anbar province 70 miles west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. One Marine and an Iraqi soldier suffered minor injuries in the fighting, the statement said.●