Irak/Terrorisme : une série d’attentats fait 36 morts et plus de 85 blessés
Dix personnes ont été tuées et au moins 15 autres blessées ce lundi dans un attentat suicide contre l’hôtel Mansour à Bagdad. L’établissement situé à proximité de la zone verte et réputé comme l’un des plus sûrs de la ville accueillait une réunion de dirigeants tribaux sunnites de la province d’Anbar. Fasal al-Khoud, un des fondateurs du Conseil du Salut qui entretient des liens avec l’armée américaine figure d’ailleurs parmi les victimes. L’hôtel abrite de nombreux étrangers mais également l’ambassade de Chine et les bureaux de l’Agence France Presse.
Par ailleurs, à Hilla, une voiture piégée pilotée par un kamikaze a explosé près du siège du gouvernorat, faisant 8 morts et 31 blessés tandis qu’un autre attentat suicide au camion citerne contre un poste de police de la ville de Baïdji a tué au moins 18 personnes et fait plus d’une quarantaine de blessés.
Malgré les opérations « Phantom Thunder » et « Arrowhead Ripper », respectivement en périphérie de Bagdad et dans la province de Diyala pour empêcher que les terroristes y trouvent refuge, beaucoup de terroristes parviennent à passer les mailles du filet et à échapper aux forces militaires.
ANBAR'S WAR
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Four of the tribal leaders killed in a bombing the Mansour Hotel on Monday had been dropped from an Anbar-based tribal militia allied with the US against al-Qa'ida, according to a member of the council, the AP reports, as police begin to release the identities of the dead.
The AP reports that a police officer based at the hotel gave the names of four of the men killed, reporting that they were Fassal al-Guood, shayk of the al-Bu Nimir tribe and the former governor of the Anbar province; Shayk Abdul-Azizi al-Fahdawi of the Fahad tribe; Shaykh Tariq Saleh al-Assafi and Col. Fadil al-Nimrawi, both of whom hail from the al-Bu Nimr tribe.
However, a member of the Anbar Council said in Ramadi said that the shaykhs who were meeting at the Mansour were convening secretly with government officials at the Mansour Hotel. The men had been dropped from the Council, he said, "because they did not continue working with us." He said they had been meeting secretly with government officials, about unspecified matters.
Aswat al-Iraq reports in Arabic that the two other tribal shaykhs killed were Shaykh Aziz al-Yasari, of the Al-Bu Yasar tribe, and Shaykh Husayn Sha'lan al-Khaza'i, of the Khaza'a tribe, citing police sources.
Several other shaykhs were injured in the blast, including Shaykh Ali Khalifa, and Shaykh Ribah al-'Alawani, and Shaykh Diham al-'Abidi, according to police sources, Aswat al-Iraq reports.
A police officer also told AP that three of al-Guood’s personal guards were also killed in the blast.
A defense ministry official also told the AP that Gen. Aziz al-Yassiri, an adivisor in the Defense Ministry also died in the bombing at the Mansour.
The blast struck Monday when a bomber wearing a suicide belt detonated himself in the interior of the hotel during a meeting between tribal leaders and Iraqi security officials. A security source in the hotel told the AP that the bomber would have had to infiltrate three checkpoints, one outside the hotel and two inside.
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