Posted on Mon, Jun. 20, 2005
Insurgent attacks leave 65 dead across Iraq
By Patrick Quinn
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber walked calmly into a popular Baghdad kebab restaurant at lunchtime Sunday and killed at least 23 people eating plates of lamb and rice -- the deadliest attack in the capital in six weeks.
The explosion was the bloodiest attack on a day of relentless insurgent violence that claimed at least 45 lives across the country despite twin U.S-Iraqi offensives against militants.
Today, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a morning roll call outside a traffic police headquarters in the Kurdish city of Irbil, killing at least 20 and wounding 50, police said.
The bomber disguised himself as a policeman amid a meeting of about 200 traffic police officers gathered in a courtyard at 8 a.m., police Col. Mohammed Saleh and Lt. Col. Abdul-Salam Zibari said.
The U.S. military announced the death of the first Marine since the operations, code-named Spear and Dagger, began Friday and Saturday respectively in Al-Anbar province. About 1,000 U.S. forces and Iraqi soldiers are taking part in each offensive.
Also, Marines reported killing 15 insurgents in battles near Al-Fallujah, the Al-Anbar province town 40 miles west of Baghdad and a perennial insurgent stronghold.
The tribunal that will hear the case against Saddam Hussein and key members of his ousted government released videotape of the deposed leader's cousin: the man known as ``Chemical Ali'' because of his role in the 1988 poison gas attack that killed at least 5,000 people in the Kurdish town of Halabjah.
Ali Hassan al-Majid was one of eight former government officials shown testifying before an investigative magistrate. The videorecording by the Iraqi Special Tribunal showed Majid signing a document dated Thursday.
Apart from the 23 in the restaurant suicide bombing, those killed Sunday died in individual attacks spread throughout the country. They included two soldiers, two police officers and 18 civilians.