Suicide bomber attacks Iraqi school
BAGHDAD (AP) - January 22, 2008 The school attack and other recent bombings against funerals and
social gatherings raised the possibility that al-Qaida in Iraq has
shifted tactics to focus on so-called soft targets and undermine
public confidence that security is improving in Iraq.
The bombing at a gate in front of the two-story schoolhouse came
at about 8:30 a.m., half an hour after classes began. The blast,
which left a crater in the road, killed a 25-year-old man and
injured 12 students, eight teachers and one policeman, a doctor at
Baqouba General Hospital said.
Mohammed Abbas, 15, said he was walking outside his classroom
after finishing a test when he heard a big boom.
"Immediately I fell down, and the next thing I was aware of was
a doctor treating me in the hospital," Abbas said, his wounded
head bandaged as his father stood near him. "We did not expect
that explosions would reach our school. I can't think of any reason
to target students."
A police officer said the school appeared to be the target
because the attacker blew himself up at the gate. The school is
more than 30 yards from the back gate of the provincial governor's
office in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Both the officer
and the doctor spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared
reprisals.
Baqouba is the turbulent capital of Diyala province, which has
defied a nationwide trend toward lower violence over the past six
months. One reason for the continued bloodshed in Diyala is that
al-Qaida in Iraq fighters fled there after Sunni insurgents and
clan members joined with American troops to oust them from much of
Baghdad and Anbar province to the west.
However, the Diyala attack followed three suicide attacks in as
many days in Sunni Arab areas thought to have been largely rid of
al-Qaida militants.
U.S. commanders credit anti-al-Qaida fighters from Sunni groups,
a six-month cease-fire by a Shiite militia and the dispatch of
30,000 additional U.S. soldiers last year for the reduction in
violence. But there has been an increase in high-profile bombings
in recent weeks.
On Monday, a suicide bomber apparently targeting a senior
security official blew himself up inside a funeral tent, killing 18
people. The attack was in Hajaj, a village between Saddam Hussein's
hometown of Tikrit and the oil hub of Beiji, 155 miles north of
Baghdad. But police said the attack bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida
in Iraq.
Witnesses said about 70 people were inside the tent when the
attacker set off his explosives soon after entering.
Officials said the target appeared to be Ahmed Abdullah, deputy
governor in charge of security for Salahuddin province, of which
Tikrit is the capital. He escaped unharmed.
Abdullah was a relative of the deceased man, Antar Mohammed
Abed. He was a former bodyguard of Saddam's wife, Sajida Khairallah
Tulfah.
Abed's son and a grandson were among the 18 killed, said the
officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were
not authorized to speak to the media.
As a relative, Abdullah should have been sitting close to the
son and grandson, because family members take the seats closest to
the entrance on such occasions to be the first to receive visitors.
Awad Jassim, a 25-year-old laborer hired by Abed's family to
make tea and coffee for mourners, said he was only a few yards from
the tent when the explosion ripped it down, sending him running for
cover.
"Later, I returned to the tent when I heard the voices of the
wounded begging for help," he said. "There was chaos everywhere,
but we managed to carry out the dead and the wounded."
The attack came one day after a teenage suicide bomber targeted
U.S.-backed, anti-al-Qaida fighters near the former insurgent
stronghold of Fallujah in Anbar province west of Baghdad. Six
people were killed by that blast.
On Saturday, three suicide bombers attacked a police station in
Ramadi, Anbar's provincial capital. Guards killed one attacker, but
the other two detonated their explosives at the entrance, killing
at least five officers.
Meanwhile, a soldier killed over the weekend south of Baghdad
was the first American casualty in a roadside bomb attack on the
newly introduced, heavily armored MRAP - Mine-Resistant,
Ambush-Protected vehicle, a military spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The hull of the huge armored truck is v-shaped, designed to
deflect blasts from roadside bombs which have killed more American
soldiers than any other tactic.
The soldier who died Saturday was the gunner who sits atop the
MRAP vehicle. Three crew members tucked inside the cabin were
wounded. The vehicle rolled over after the blast and it was not
clear whether the gunner died from the explosion or the roll-over.
There now are more than 1,500 of the costly vehicles in service
in Iraq and the Pentagon is working to get at least 12,000 more
into the theater, using $21 billion provided by Congress.
The sophisticated vehicles are being built and put into service
in a bid to provide soldiers and Marines more protection than is
offered by armored Humvees, which have flat bottoms which absorb
the shock waves from a blast. The bottom of an MRAP also is 36
inches above ground, while Humvees sit much lower.
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Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this
report.