BAQUBA, Aug 12: Iraqi authorities imposed a curfew on the capital of Diyala province on Tuesday after the governor survived a suicide attack that left the bomber’s body parts scattered across the street.
Two people were killed and seven wounded when the attacker detonated an explosive vest near the convoy carrying Diyala Governor Raad Rasheed in the provincial capital Baquba, 65 km northeast of Baghdad. Rasheed was unharmed.
Diyala has been the scene of a two-week-old crackdown by US-backed Iraqi forces against Sunni Arab Al Qaeda and other militants, who frequently employ suicide bombing as a tactic.
As violence in Iraq has dropped to levels not seen since 2004, the ethnically and religiously mixed province is considered one of the last remaining sanctuaries for Al Qaeda.
Iraqiya state television said the curfew in the city centre would run from noon (0900 GMT) until Wednesday morning.
The explosion near the provincial government headquarters scattered the bomber’s body parts across the street, while a man lay lifeless by the roadside, a photographer who was in Baquba at the time of the blast reported.
An American bomb-disposal robot probed the area after the attack, while Iraqi and US soldiers tended to wounded Iraqis before they were taken to a hospital.
“I condemn this terrorist attack that targeted us. And this is not the first attempt,” Rasheed said. “It is not going to sway us from continuing our course of imposing security through operation ‘Good Omen’.”
Many recent attacks in the province have been carried out by female suicide bombers, a tactic used increasingly by Al Qaeda this year. It was not immediately clear whether Tuesday’s attacker was male or female.
FIGHTERS FLEEING CITIES: Iraqi forces, backed by US soldiers and helicopters, launched the crackdown last month in Diyala, searching homes, confiscating weapons and detaining scores of people. At least 370 people have been arrested so far, police say.
The Iraqi government said on Monday it was calling a pause in the operation for a few days to allow militants to surrender.
But Major-General Mark Hertling, who commands US forces in northern Iraq, said US soldiers would press on.
Hertling said on Monday that crackdowns in Diyala over the last year had pushed many militants into the countryside.
“We must capture or kill the hardcore terrorists that are residing now out in the hinterlands,” he said.
Hafith Abdul-Aziz, the province’s deputy governor for administrative affairs, said the curfew came on the heels of the sacking of Diyala’s regional police chief on Monday.
“Security forces have fanned out in the streets,” he said.
Washington is pressuring the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to match recent security improvements with progress in reconciling rival political factions.
Yet US ambitions for political progress in Iraq faced a setback last week when parliament adjourned for its summer break without passing a law that would have allowed officials to move towards holding provincial elections scheduled for Oct 1.
The elections are seen as important in healing Iraq’s sectarian divides, especially with the Sunni Arab minority. But the election law has been held up by wrangling with another minority, the Kurds, over power in the city of Kirkuk.
The sharp drop in bloodshed has led surrounding nations to re-engage with Maliki’s Shia-led government, which long complained of a lack of support from Iraq’s Arab neighbours.—Reuters
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