Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

Smoke billows after an explosion in Baghdad. Death toll in the bomb attack in central Baghdad's Sadriyah market rose to at least 120 people and some 200 wounded on Saturday. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BAGHDAD, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- A surge of car bombings and shootings on Saturday claimed the lives of more than a hundred Iraqis with several hundreds wounded in the capital Baghdad and left three northern cities under curfew, including the oil rich city of Kirkuk.

    In one of the deadliest single bombing in a busy market in central Baghdad, at least 120 people were killed and some 246 others wounded when a truck bomb went off, a police source said.

    The attack took place an hour or so before the sunset, as an explosive-laden truck loaded with food detonated in the crowded vegetable market of Sadriyah on the east bank of the Tigris River,where was crowded with people buying food for their evening meal, said the source.

    Ambulances and rescue teams pulled out bodies from the debris of many shops and nearby buildings, while Iraqi security forces cordoned off the area.

    In the northern, ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, seven car bombings, including a suicide attack, killed at least two people and wounded 26 others, according to police reports.

    In one attack, a suicide bomber blew up his explosive-laden car near the offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in central Kirkuk, some 250 km north of Baghdad, a city police commander, Brigadier Burhan Taha told Xinhua by telephone.

    At least two people were killed and 17 others wounded in the attack, Taha said.

    The KDP, whose head is president of the regional Kurdish government based in Arbil province, is one of the two major Kurdish parties dominated in Iraq after the U.S. invasion in March2003.

    According to Taha, six more car bombings in different parts of the city also wounded nine more people.

    The authorities closed the oil-rich city and imposed curfew starting from 4:00 p.m. (1300 GMT) Saturday to 6:00 a.m. (0300 GMT)on Sunday in anticipation of more attacks.

    Further north, another curfew was imposed on Mosul City following fierce clashes between gunmen and security forces erupted in several neighborhoods of the city.

    Governor of the Nineveh province Duraid Kashmolah imposed the curfew on Mosul City, the capital of his province, and ordered the Iraqi security forces to deploy in the city to fight hundreds of gunmen hid in the neighborhoods.

    Nevertheless, violence continued in the city despite the curfew when a car bomb struck an ambulance, killing an injured woman who was being taken to hospital, the police said.

    A third city also put under curfew after gunmen stormed two security checkpoints outside the Iraqi city of Samarra early in the morning, killing ten security members and wounding nine others,said a police source, adding three gunmen were also killed in the attacks.

    In Fallujah west of Baghdad, a series of insurgent attacks, including a suicide car bombing, also raged in and around the Iraqi restive city, killing a civilian and wounding 14 others, according to local police source.

    In the Amriyat al-Fallujah town, 7 km south of Fallujah City, a suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden car into a police station,wounding eight policemen, while a simultaneous mortar attack targeted another police station in the town, killing a civilian and wounding six others, the source said.

    In Mahmoudiyah, some 30 km south of the capital Baghdad, a car bomb went off near a commercial area in the town, killing a civilian and wounding nine others, along with damaging several storefronts and set fire in four civilian cars.

    Violence rages in Iraq as sectarian killings, suicide attacks, bombings, abductions cause dozens of Iraqi casualties daily, though the Iraqi government has announced a new security plan to quell the sectarian violence and growing militia dominance.

Related:

    Death toll in Baghdad blast rises to at least 120

    BAGHDAD, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Death toll in the bomb attack in central Baghdad's Sadriyah market, a predominantly Shiite area rose to at least 120 people killed and some 200 wounded on Saturday, the pan-Arab al-Jazeera TV channel reported.

    Curfew imposed on Mosul after clashes

    MOSUL, Iraq, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi authorities imposed a curfew on the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday following fierce clashes between gunmen and security forces, an Iraqi army officer said.

    10 Iraqi security members killed in north of Baghdad

SAMARRA, Iraq, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Unknown gunmen stormed two security checkpoints outside the Iraqi City of Samarra early on Saturday, killing ten security members and wounding nine others, provincial police source said.

    U.S. intel report: Iraq risks further deterioration

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- A latest U.S. intelligence report reveals a growing dangerous situation in Iraq, which is nearly out of U.S. control and risks further deterioration, The Washington Post reported Friday.

    White House says Iraq intelligence report tough, fair

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- The White House said Friday that the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq, which outlines an increasingly perilous situation in Iraq, is tough but fair.

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