The timing of Wednesday’s series of three suicide bombings in Baghdad was significant, considering Sunday’s parliamentary election is just around the corner. The attacks happened in rapid succession in the morning and killed 32 people, including some who had been wounded in the first two blasts and were seeking treatment at a hospital in the Iraqi capital city. –KA
AP via Google News:
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell denounced the bombings but said they would not succeed in disrupting the election, “nor do we anticipate that it will derail our responsible drawdown of forces in Iraq” to 50,000 troops by Sept. 1.
The violence began about 9 a.m. with a suicide car bomb that targeted a local government housing office near an Iraqi army facility, police spokesman Capt. Ghalib al-Karkhi said.
Within minutes, a second suicide car bomb exploded 200 yards (meters) down the street near the provincial government headquarters near many police and army personnel.
It was the final bomber, however, who caused the most casualties, by donning a military uniform, pretending to be wounded and riding an ambulance back to the hospital where he blew himself up, al-Karkhi said. Many of the wounded from the first two bombs were killed in the third attack.