At least 19 die in Baghdad car bombing
Thursday, November 11, 2004 Posted: 8:07 AM EST (1307 GMT)
 |  Iraqis gather at the scene of a huge explosion that hit the heart of Baghdad on Thursday. |
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for CNN correspondents' frequent updates on the situation on the
ground: live reports from the U.S.-Iraqi offensive in Falluja.
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 U.S. Iraqi forces say they control 70 percent of Falluja.
 Relatives of Ayad Allawi are kidnapped.
 U.S. troops advance into the heart of Falluja .
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BAGHDAD,
Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide car bomb attack Thursday has killed at least 19
people and heavily damaged storefronts in a busy commercial district of
central Baghdad, an Iraqi police official said.
Fifteen others were wounded in the attack, which targeted a vehicle carrying Americans and a police vehicle.
Also, 25 cars were destroyed and burned, and 20 shops and buildings were damaged in the explosion.
The impact of the blast left a hole on the ground about three meters deep and four meters wide.
The attack shook al-Nasser Square near Saadoun Street at 11:35 a.m. (3:30 a.m. ET) in the capital's Rasafa District.
Thursday's
explosion came one day after a car bomb detonated near an emergency
police patrol in eastern Baghdad, killing at least seven people and
wounding three police officers, said Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman, spokesman
for Iraq's Ministry of Interior.
Also, a U.S. soldier was
killed and another injured Wednesday after an Army 1st Infantry
Division patrol was hit by a roadside bomb near Balad, north of
Baghdad, a military statement said.
Meanwhile, military
officials said Wednesday that combined U.S. and Iraqi forces have taken
control of about 70 percent of the rebel-held city of Falluja on the
third day of a ground offensive, including key buildings.
Troops
had expected to encounter heavy urban fighting in their push to clear
the city of insurgents before elections in January. So far, however,
they have found resistance to be lighter than anticipated.
Iraqi
troops in Falluja also found hostage "slaughterhouses," where people
were held captive and beheaded, an Iraqi military official said
Wednesday.
Soldiers found CDs labeled "beheading of ..." and showing the decapitations of hostages.
Black
clothing and masks worn by kidnappers when they made videos were found,
along with banners hoisted in the background, according to Iraqi and
U.S. military officials.
Soldiers said it was apparent that numerous killings had taken place there.
Maj.
Gen. Abdul Qader, commander of Iraqi forces in the battle, said he was
unsure whether the hostage records included the names of kidnapped
British aid worker Margaret Hassan or French journalists Christian
Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot.
An estimated 10,000 U.S. soldiers
and Marines, along with about 2,000 troops from Iraq's new army, have
been running into small pockets of fighters as they fight their way
through the city west of Baghdad.
The offensive launched Sunday
is dubbed Operation New Dawn and targets an estimated 2,000 to 3,000
insurgents. A senior Pentagon official said more than 500 insurgents
have been killed in the fighting. (Gallery)
Eleven
U.S. troops and two Iraqis have been killed since fighting began,
officials said Wednesday. Nine Iraqi soldiers and an unknown number of
Ministry of Interior personnel have been injured.
Strongholds in
and around Falluja have been destroyed, including defensive positions
on the outskirts of the city. Combat units report finding several
weapons and explosives caches, along with car bombs and other homemade
explosives.
Military officials said two mosques have been
searched because weapons were believed to be hidden inside. In an
effort to preserve the cultural sensitivity of mosques, only Iraqi
forces were sent inside.
Falluja is considered an insurgent
command-and-control center for the rest of the country and a base for
Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network. (Falluja map)
The
city was sealed off Sunday, but many insurgents could have slipped out
before then, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz said Tuesday. As for al-Zarqawi, Metz
said, "I think it would be fair to assume that he has left."
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has called for insurgents to lay down their weapons.
The
operation marks the third attempt this year to subdue Falluja. Earlier
operations in the city -- by U.S. forces and by a short-lived Iraqi
force called the Falluja Brigade -- failed to quell the insurgents.
Iraqi leader's relatives kidnapped
At
least two members of Allawi's extended family were abducted at gunpoint
Wednesday from their home in Baghdad amid conflicting reports from
government officials and sources close to the family.
A group called Ansar al-Jihad claimed responsibility for the kidnapping on a Web site, saying there were three hostages.
The
prime minister's office Wednesday said it was aware of the abduction of
two family members -- Allawi's cousin, Ghazy Allawi, 75, and his
cousin's daughter-in-law. The office said Ghazy Allawi has no political
interest and did not work for any governmental facility. (Full story)
Other developments
U.S.
forces found and freed an Iraqi who had been chained to a wall and
beaten by his captors in a building in Falluja, the military said
Thursday. The man told Marines he was a taxi driver held for 10 days,
according to The Associated Press. The man was bruised and starving
when troops came across him Wednesday afternoon in the building in a
northeastern district of the city, the AP reported. (Full story)The
governor of Kirkuk survived an assassination attempt Thursday by Iraqi
insurgents, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division said. Gov. Abdul
Rahman Mustafa was traveling from his home to a government building
when a car bomb exploded near his convoy at about 8:30 a.m. (12:30 a.m.
ET). The governor was not hurt in the attack, but four Iraqi security
guards were wounded. Kirkuk is north of Baghdad.CNN's
Caroline Faraj, Kevin Flower, Elise Labott, Ayman Mohyeldin, Kianne
Sadeq, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Baghdad bureau chief Jane Arraf, embedded
with the U.S. Army, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
