SULAIMANIYAH, Kurdistan (Iraq)- Violence shocks
a quiet Kurdish city unaccustomed to the violence
seen elsewhere in Iraq.
Three car bombs ripped through this quiet Kurdish
city on October 25, killing nine people and injuring
at least 15.
The attacks, carried out by suicide car bombers, hit
Kurdish government and security targets in
Sulaimaniyah. They were believed to be one of the
worst attacks in the city since Kurdish authorities
won control of the region in 1991.
The interior ministry reported that two car bombs
went off at around 9:30 am, when two cars packed
with explosives surrounded a convoy transporting
Mullah Bakhtiyar, a member of the political council
of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the dominant
party in this part of the Kurdish region.
The attack, near the Grdi Sarchinar neighbourhood,
killed one of Bakhtiyar’s security guards, and
injured six other people including other bodyguards
and civilians. Bakhtiyar himself was unharmed.
The second attack occurred at 10:45 am, when a car
rammed into concrete barriers in front of a building
belonging to the Kurdish military or peshmerga,
making it effectively the Kurds' defence ministry. |
Sulaimaniyah car blast
Photo: AP
Photo: Reuters
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The attacks brought parts of Sulaimaniyah to a
virtual standstill. Roadblocks were set up, and the
streets remained mostly empty. Businesses and
schools near the sites of the attacks closed.
Aswat al-Iraq, an Iraqi news website, reported that
a group calling itself the "Kurdish Battalion",
linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the
attacks in Sulaimaniyah. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for
bombing the Palestine and Sheraton hotels in Baghdad
on October 24.
Yasin Sami, a spokesman for Sulaimaniyah’s security
forces, said the authorities were holding the bodies
of the three bombers, but would not comment on
possible suspects, saying the claims published
online could not be confirmed.
Meanwhile, city residents who witnessed the
explosions were left in a state of shock.
“Car parts and flesh went flying,” recalled Ibrahim
Hussein, a 29-year-old civil servant whose arm was
broken in the first attack. “A head fell into the
garden where I was. I think it was the head of the
terrorist.”
Recovering in hospital, he condemned those behind
the attack, saying, "Only shame and disgrace remains
for them, and they will lose. They know nothing
about humanity.”
Juma Hama, a 42-year-old truck driver, was injured
in the second blast while driving past the peshmerga
ministry. “I can’t describe that moment,” he said.
“It looked like doomsday, and I felt almost numb.”
Security forces panicked and shot randomly into the
air to clear the roads as they transported victims
to hospital, reported an eyewitness who did not want
to be named.
The attacks came just hours before the Independent
Electoral Commission in Iraq officially announced
that Iraqi voters had approved a controversial new
constitution strongly backed by Kurdish lawmakers.
Until the attacks, Sulaimaniyah, a city of about
600,000 located 375 kilometres north east of
Baghdad, had remained a tranquil bubble while
violence spread through the rest of the country.
Ansar al-Islam, a radical group that hoped to create
an Islamic state in the Kurdish territories, was
once active in the mountains surrounding
Sulaimaniyah, and had threatened Bakhtiyar in the
past. Ansar al-Islam supporters were believed to
have been killed or to have fled to Iran following
the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Security forces spokesman Sami insisted that in the
wake of the attacks, "We have taken strict security
measures.
"We ask people to deal with these events calmly.
These events don’t mean that the security situation
has been disturbed.”
Talar Nadir and Ayyub Kareem are IWPR trainees in
Sulaimaniyah.
www.iwpr.net
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