Friday, November 10, 2006
Violence continues as Rumsfeld resigns
Security
Three U.S. soldiers were killed and dozens of Iraqi civilians were victims of bombs, sectarian gunmen and mortars over the past 24 hours. On Thursday in Baghdad alone, six car bombs and four roadside bombs killed 18 people and wounded dozens more, and police found the bodies of 26 people shot dead, some of them tortured. Mortars killed another three and wounded 30. The attacks took place in markets in Baghdad's Shia neighbourhood. The first was a car bomb in Qahira district which killed seven people, injured 27 and destroyed seven cars. In another attack, nine people were killed and 27 injured when a bomber drove an explosives-rigged vehicle into crowds gathered in a commercial complex in the centre of Baghdad. Baghdad was under a regular curfew on Friday to avoid violence on the Muslim day of prayer.
The deaths came the day after Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, resigned. Many Iraqis cheered his departure blaming him for policy failures and scandals they say spawned the daily sectarian violence that has destroyed their nation more than three years after the US invasion. Hamid al-Mutlaq, a Sunni politician and senior leader of the Sunni Arab National Dialogue Front, hailed Rumsfeld's departure as evidence of the downfall of those who created an "evil project" in Iraq.
More than 1,200 Iraqis were killed in October. With at least 66 killed on Wednesday alone, the death toll looks likely to exceed that in November. As a result, the United Nations has increased its daily death toll estimate to 100 a day. Dr Abdul-Razaq al-Obaidi, a director of Baghdad's main mortuary, said that up to 60 bodies were arriving each day. Many have gone unclaimed and are buried in a public cemetery after photographs are taken for later identification.
