Steve Quayle News Alerts

February 1, 2004

Kurdish families wait outside a hospital for news about relatives who may have been injured or killed in Sunday's blasts in Erbil, Iraq.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nearly simultaneous suicide bombings of the offices of two Kurdish political parties in the northern Iraq town of Erbil Sunday morning killed at least 56 people, including at least five senior Kurdish officials, a coalition spokesman said.

About 200 people were wounded in the attacks, which took place at about 11 a.m. (3 a.m. ET) at the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt.

"We have no group that's claimed responsibility," he said. "It could be any number of groups attempting to operate inside Iraq."

Both offices were filled with people celebrating the start of the four day Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, a main Muslim holiday.

PUK spokesman Qubad Talabani said the explosion at PUK headquarters apparently came from inside the building.

Kimmitt identified the dead Kurdish officials as Sami Abdul Rahman, PDK, deputy prime minister of the Kurdish region; Mehdi Khoshnau, deputy governor of Erbil province; Saad Abdullah, head of PDK office in Erbil; Shahwan Abbas, military commander for PUK Peshmerga; and Shoshak Shira, PUK official.

Rahman's two sons also died. Adnan Mofti, head of the PDK office, was wounded. His condition was stable and Talabani said he appeared to have suffered several broken bones.

Talabani said his father, Jalal Talabani, PUK founder and secretary-general, was not in the building at the time.

Muhi al-Khateeb, secretary general of Iraq Governing Council secretariat, said Iraqis were "showing our resolve" by withstanding the ongoing violence.

"Of course, we are losing our people -- but our aims, our targets, our democracy and freedom and our aim to build a new Iraq is not going to be affected by all that," he said.

"On the contrary, our resolve will be more strong, and we will be more determined to go all the way to rebuild a new Iraq after the liberation of Baghdad."

Paul Bremer, U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, expressed "outrage at today's murderous bombings," calling them "a cowardly attack on both innocent human beings as well as on the very principle of democratic pluralism in Iraq."

A coalition official said medical personnel from the U.S. 101st Airborne Division were assisting with the wounded and other coalition personnel were on hand to aid the investigation.

Talabani said the PUK also was organizing a convoy of medical workers and ambulances from Sulaimaniya to Erbil.

The region, which had been largely autonomous since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, had been stable. "This is going to unify the nation and the people to work against terrorism," Talabani said.

One U.S. soldier was killed and 11 were wounded Sunday in a rocket attack on a 4th Infantry Division base near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, a military spokesman said.

The spokesman said seven rockets were fired at Forward Operating Base Anaconda at 1:15 p.m. (5:15 a.m. ET).

The wounded soldiers were taken to the nearest combat hospital, where one was in serious condition, six were in stable condition and four were released after being treated for minor injuries.

Coalition forces were searching for the attackers, the spokesman said.

Since the beginning of the war, 367 U.S. troops have been killed in action, 252 of them after President Bush declared the end of major combat operation on May 1. In all, 525 American troops have died in Iraq.
Other developments

• At least five Iraqis were killed around midnight Saturday (4 p.m. ET Sunday) in an explosion at a former Saddam Hussein regime ammunition dump, in the desert about 115 miles southwest of Karbala. A Polish military source said the Iraqis were believed to have been looting the dump.

• A majority of Britons favor an independent investigation into the intelligence Prime Minister Tony Blair cited as the justification for the war in Iraq, according to two newspaper polls. An inquiry by judge Lord Hutton found that a BBC report that said British officials "sexed up" the cases against Iraq was unfounded. (Full story)

• A car bomb exploded early Saturday at a police station in the northern city of Mosul, killing nine people and wounding at least 45 others, according to news reports. It was payday at the station. Also Saturday, a roadside bomb attack on a U.S. convoy traveling between the northeast Iraq towns of Tikrit and Kirkuk killed three soldiers.

CNN's Jane Arraf, Gaven Morris and Kevin Flower in Baghdad contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/02/01/sprj.nirq.main/index.html