44 die in Iraq as Ramadan ends
(AP)
Updated: 2006-10-23 08:27
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants targeted police recruits and shoppers rounding up
last-minute sweets and delicacies Sunday for a feast to mark the end of the
Ramadan holy month, the highlight of the Muslim year. At least 44 Iraqis were
reported killed across the country.
The US military announced the deaths of a Marine and four soldiers, raising
to 83 the number of American servicemembers killed in October - the highest
monthly toll this year. The pace of US deaths could make October the deadliest
month in two years.
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Militants targeted police recruits and shoppers rounding up
last-minute sweets and delicacies Sunday for a feast to mark the end of
the Ramadan holy month, the highlight of the Muslim year. At least 44
Iraqis were reported killed across the country.
[AP]
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Three soldiers were killed Sunday, two by small arms fire west of the capital
and one by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, the military said. On Saturday, a
Marine was killed during combat in restive Anbar province and another soldier
died in fighting in Salahuddin province.
"There will be no holiday in Iraq," said Abu Marwa, a 46-year-old Sunni
Muslim father of three who owns a mobile phone shop in the capital. "Anyone who
says otherwise is a liar."
In Sunday's bloodiest attack, gunmen in five sedans ambushed a convoy of
buses carrying police recruits near the city of Baqouba 35 miles northeast of
Baghdad, killing at least 15 and wounding 25 others, said provincial police
chief Maj. Gen. Ghassan al-Bawi. The recruits were returning home after an
induction ceremony at a police base south of Baqouba.
A series of bombs also ripped through a Baghdad market and bakery packed with
holiday shoppers, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens, police said.
The attack came a day after a massive bicycle-bomb and mortar attack on an
outdoor market killed 19 and wounded scores in Mahmoudiyah, just south of the
capital.
The Iraqi Islamic Party issued a statement blaming Shiite militiamen for the
attack in Mahmoudiyah, 20 miles south of Baghdad. The Sunni organization claimed
Shiite militiamen had killed 1,000 residents in the town since the start of the
year.
The Bush administration has been wrestling to find new tactics to contain the bloodshed ahead of
the US midterm elections as lawmakers from both parties expressed wavering confidence
in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's ability to come to grips with the rising
bloodshed.
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