Double Bombing Kills 37 at Iraqi Government Office

Similar strikes in recent months have killed scores

An Iraqi man inspects the scene of a bomb attack in Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, July 5, 2011. Double blasts from a car bomb and a roadside bombing at a parking lot outside a city council building north of Baghdad, killed and wounded scores of people, police said. (Photo credit: Hadi Mizban / AP)

By Sinan Salaheddin

July 5, 2011

BAGHDAD — A car packed with explosives and a roadside bomb went off back-to-back outside a municipal building north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 37 people and wounding 54, Iraqi police and a hospital doctor said.

The twin blast in Taji, a Sunni-dominated town about 12 miles from the Iraqi capital, were the latest in a series of attacks across Iraq. They came at a time of public debate over whether to ask the United States to keep some American troops here past their year-end withdrawal deadline from the country. …

Burned bodies were lying on the ground and about 20 cars were on fire, witnesses said.

The assailants first detonated the car bomb around noon in the parking lot of Taji’s local council building, police said. When civilians and security forces rushed to the scene to help the victims, the second bomb was detonated. …

Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni politician, demanded that Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki quickly appoint defense and interior ministers to help deal with growing chaos among the security forces. The two senior posts have been vacant for more than six months as government officials squabble over which parties should hold them. …

Similar strikes carried out by the insurgent group in recent months have killed scores at provincial government headquarters across the country, including in Baqouba, Diwaniyah, Kirkuk and in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.

On June 23, bombs ripped through Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad and killing at least 40 people.

Late Monday, a rocket attack on Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone killed three women and two children, and wounded 10 people. Officials said militants fired a Katyusha rocket as Americans were celebrating Fourth of July at the U.S. Embassy, which is inside the Green Zone. …

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7/11/2011 Update

Three Rockets Hit Green Zone as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Visits Baghdad

U.S. vows unilateral action targeting Iranian arms to Iraq militants

Video

New defense secretary visits war zones (NBC “Today,” June 11, 2011) — As rocket strikes pound Baghdad’s Green Zone, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta travels to Iraq on his first visit as the head of the Pentagon. NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reports. (01:21)

BAGHDAD — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday that the U.S. is concerned about Iran providing weapons to Iraq militants and will take unilateral action when needed to deal with the threat.

We’re very concerned about Iran and the weapons they’re providing to extremists in Iraq,” he told a small group of soldiers on his first visit to Iraq as Pentagon chief. He is there to meet with Iraqi leaders to discuss the possibility of keeping some U.S. troops in Iraq beyond 2011. …

Underscoring Panetta’s comments, three rockets fired from a mainly Shiite neighborhood hit Baghdad’s Green Zone during his visit, Iraqi police said. No casualties were reported and Panetta was not in the Green Zone at the time of the rocket strikes.

June was the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq since 2008, with 15 killed, according to the U.S. military’s tally.

Most of those deaths were the result of Iranian-made rockets and mortars, Reuters reported.

Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer, last week accused Iran of directly supporting extremist Shiite groups that are killing U.S. troops in Iraq and said any agreement to keep American forces there beyond the end of the year would have to address the problem. …

Full story

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Related reports on this site

Four car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Thursday, June 23, 2011 killing at least 40 people and wounding nearly 100. (Photo: credit: Ahmad al-Rubaye / AFP — Getty Images)

Iraq Continues Post-Saddam Slide to Sectarian War (Jan. 6, 2012)

U.S. Deaths in Iraq at 2-Year High (June 30, 2011)

Neverending U.S. War Price Tag Hits $4 Trillion (June 29, 2011)

Deadly Blasts Shatter Calm in Baghdad (June 23, 2011)

Spate of Bombings in Baghdad (April 18, 2011)

Iraq: Many Dead in Tikrit (March 29, 2011)

Iraq: Slaughter in Samarra (Feb. 12, 2011)

Iraq Violence Persists (Feb. 9, 2011)

Wholesale Slaughter in Iraq (Jan. 18, 2011)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — July 5, 2010

Deadliest Month in Afghanistan

A U.S. Marine leans on the headstone of a comrade recently buried in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, May 27, 2010. (Photo: Jason Reed / Reuters)

One year ago today, I reported that more than 100 foreign troops died in Afghanistan in June 2010, making it the deadliest month to date in the then nine-year-long war.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — July 5, 2009

Deadly June for Iraqis

An Iraqi army soldier stands guard at the site of the car bomb attacks Sunday, June 20, 2010 in Baghdad. (Photo credit: Hadi Mizban / AP)

Two years ago today, on July 5, 2009, I reported that Iraqis were skeptical that much would change for the better after the June 30, 2009 withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from urban areas; that June 2009 was the deadliest month of the year to date in Iraq; that two U.S. troops were killed in an attack on a U.S. base in Afghanistan; that a U.S. soldier was reported missing, believed captured, in Afghanistan; and that four U.S. troops were killed in a roadside bombing in Kunduz province, northern Afghanistan.