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Bombs kill 7, wound dozens in IraqIraq: Two top terrorists arrested
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YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Bombs in Iraq, including one which tore through a crowded pet animal market in Baghdad, have claimed another seven lives and injured scores of people, police and military said. Four people were killed Friday and at least 50 injured when twin bombs detonated at the central Baghdad market where vendors sell dogs, cats, rabbits, birds and other animals, police said. In another incident, an official with Baghdad police told CNN that two civilians were killed and four others were wounded when a bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in the Jadida neighborhood of eastern Baghdad. Also Friday, roadside bombs wounded six people in two separate incidents in Mansour, four soldiers in one incident and two police in another. A day earlier, near the town of Samarra, another roadside bomb killed an Iraqi woman and wounded four people -- two Iraqi men and two soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team. The incident occurred in the median of a roadway west of Samarra, the U.S. military said in a statement. "The soldiers and the civilian victims were traveling in opposite directions on the highway when the bomb detonated near the southbound lanes. "Soldiers reported receiving small arms fire while searching the area around the blast site. A number of local men suspected of involvement in the attack were detained for questioning by coalition forces." On Thursday Iraq's Interior Ministry announced it had arrested its second "high-ranking terrorist" in a week. Hamza Khair al-Aini, accused of killing dozens of Iraqi civilians and security forces, was hiding in the town of Abu Saydah north of Baghdad, where police said they caught him. They found a bloody saw and clothes in his hideout, the ministry said. The ministry's statement did not say when the arrest took place. The statement came a day after Iraq announced its forces had arrested Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi, another "key terrorist," on Monday Al-Batawi was involved in the March 2004 bombing of Karbala that killed more than 140 Iraqis, most of them Shiite pilgrims, according to Iraqi and U.S. military officials. During his arrest, Iraqi forces from the Terrorist Combat Unit seized documents that listed potential attack targets. U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the arrest "is very, very significant to us." "We truly believe with his capture, that this will provide us some critical information as we continue trying to unravel the al Qaeda in Iraq network," Caldwell said. Cabinet announcements due SundayNearly two weeks after Iraq's parliament approved the country's new government, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he will announce his nominations for the key posts of the Interior and Defense ministries during Sunday's Parliament session. When the new Iraqi government was approved by the Parliament on May 20, the hope was that the Defense and Interior ministers could be filled within a week. On Sunday, Iraq's deputy prime minister pleaded for understanding over the delay. Salih said it "is a safe bet ... but not by any means a foregone conclusion" that the defense minister will be an Iraqi Sunni and the interior minister a Shiite. Their ethnicity is critical, given that al-Maliki has vowed to disarm the militias loyal to Iraq's various ethnic groups -- one of the most difficult issues the new prime minister faces. "The issue of organized armed groups who are acting outside the state and outside the law are becoming a serious problem for our politics and our society and we have to deal with it," he said. On Wednesday, al-Maliki declared a one-month state of emergency in Basra, vowing to use an "iron fist" on criminal gangs blamed for an increase in violence in the southern Iraqi city. (Full story) Other developments
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