DIWANIYAH, Iraq, 7 February 2008 — A powerful roadside bomb aimed at a US military convoy in a central Iraq city yesterday instead ripped through two civilian cars, killing four people and wounding six, police said. Two women were among the dead, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.
The blast rocked the center of the Diwaniyah, about 180 kilometers south of Baghdad, around 10:15 a.m. (0715 GMT), he said. “The bomb missed the convoy and instead hit two cars. Four people were killed, including two women,” the officer said. “At least six people were wounded.”
The blast was an apparent attempt to free the 10 detainees who were linked to the Mehdi Army militia that is nominally loyal to Moqtada Sadr, according to police Brig. Gen. Ghassan Mohammed Ali. He said the detainees had been captured over the past month and had been accused of attacking civilians and US and Iraqi security forces in the city.
Diwaniyah has been the site of fierce fighting between rival Shiite militia factions engaged in a violent power struggle in the oil-rich area. Sadr has ordered his militia to stand in a six-month cease-fire that expires at the end of February, but the US military says disaffected fighters have broken with the movement and persisted with attacks.
Iraqi security forces in the area also are often accused of being infiltrated by militia fighters, particularly from the Badr Brigade, the militant arm of the largest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or SIIC.
In other violence, gunmen killed two Iraqi policemen and a car mechanic in separate attacks yesterday, police said. Two policemen were gunned down in western Mosul, 360 kilometers northwest of Baghdad, police said.
The attack took place in the Bab Sinjar district around 9 a.m., they said. Two other policemen were wounded, along with a civilian, police said. About two hours later, three gunmen opened fire in a car repair workshop in southwest Baghdad, killing a mechanic working there, police said.
Meanwhile, Al-Qaeda videos seized by US forces show Iraqi children younger than 11 carrying out mock kidnappings and attacks, the US military and Iraqi officials said yesterday. Videos played to media showed about 20 boys, mostly under 11, wearing balaclavas and brandishing AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers almost as big as themselves.
“This is not the first time we’ve observed such material but the volume and content was the most significant and disturbing we have found to date,” said US military spokesman Rear Adm. Gregory Smith. Smith said the videos were meant to spread Al-Qaeda’s message among the young rather than train the boys for missions.
Five videos of the children were seized during an operation against the Sunni Islamist militants in early December 2007. Violence has fallen across Iraq, with attacks down 60 percent since last June, but Smith said Al-Qaeda was still the greatest threat to security in Iraq.
He said the US military did not know exactly where or when the films were made, or how many children were involved. The boys were seen stopping a man on a bike and taking him hostage, forcing passengers from a car and holding guns to their heads, and practicing assaults on houses as trainers shouted instructions.
Other seized pictures showed a young boy wearing a “suicide vest,” while US soldiers had also found a written proposal for a movie script about training children for warfare.
“The script was to include children interrogating and executing victims, planting improvised explosive devices and conducting sniper attacks,” Smith said.
