IRAQ: Bomb explodes inside a furniture shop in Baghdad whilst U.S. forces kill one person during house raids. Gunmen kill 3 policemen in Baquba

A bomb exploded inside a furniture factory in southern Baghdad on Wednesday (November 22), setting the factory ablaze, police said. Fire-fighters and rescue workers battled to keep the blaze under control at the al-Saydiya neighbourhood of southern Baghdad but there were no immediate reports of casualties. "We heard the blast and went to the site of blast to check. We found the building on fire. The building as I told you and confirmed what I said is a complex of shops, wood and furniture," said Colonel Abdul Karim from Baghdad's fire station. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb planted near members of the Facility Protection Services (FPS) killed seven and wounded another in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. The FPS is a government run security force that guards civilian facilities such as hospitals and banks. The bomb exploded as the officers patrolled an industrial estate on Tuesday (November 21). The wounded man was taken to hospital in nearby Hilla with serious injuries. Iskandariyah was recently the scene of one of the deadliest bomb attacks in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein when a suicide car bomb ripped through a police station killing 53. In south-western Baghdad, witnesses said that U.S. forces raided a house, killing a person and arresting one other. They said that the U.S. forces forced their way into a house in al-Amil neighbourhood at 0300 a.m. (1200 GMT) whilst the family was sleeping. A trail of blood could be seen at the scene of the raid. "His uncle was with him, they were sleeping at night when they (U.S. forces) came and took him. They bound him and we did know where they took him. They attacked his family. He did not do anything. Where is the government? Where is the Islamic world? This country is bleeding but how long will this terrorism last? What they (U.S. forces) are doing is terrorism, the Iraqis are not the terrorists," said Khudeir Abdul Zahra, an eyewitness. The U.S had no immediate comment on the incident. In Baquba, gunmen attacked a police patrol and killed three policemen in the mixed Sunni and Shi'ite Iraqi city, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. Sunni Muslim insurgents are battling Iraqi and U.S. forces, while bloodshed between majority Shi'ites and Saddam Hussein's once dominant minority Sunnis has killed thousands of Iraqis and raised fears Iraq is teetering on the edge of all-out civil war. The past week has seen sectarian tensions come to a head inside Iraq's national unity government, which has yet to make headway on key issues six months after taking office on May 20 on a pledge to reconcile communities and avert civil war. A United Nations (U.N.) report released on Wednesday (November 22) said 3,709 civilians were killed in October, a record high, and 3,345 were killed in September. The report said 418,392 people were displaced within Iraq due to sectarian violence since the February bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra. Nearly 100,000 more were fleeing to Syria and Jordan every month.

ITN Source | November 23, 2006

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