IRAQ: Car bombs exploded in a fuel station in the al-Mahmudiya area and U.S. forces carry out raids in Haifa Street and Sadar City in Baghdad

A car bomb exploded in a fuel station in the outskirts of Baghdad on Wednesday (January 10), killing one person and wounding three others. The attack took place in the al-Mahmudiya area. The Iraqi army claimed two car bombs were detonated inside the petrol station. "The terrorists have exploded two car bombs inside the al-Duleimi fuel station. The situation now is under the control of the Iraqi army. The terrorists have exploded those two car bombs by remote control," said an unidentified Iraqi army officer. On Tuesday (January 9) U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 50 people in raids on a Sunni Arab district they described as riddled with "terrorist hideouts" and a hotbed of insurgent activity by foreign fighters linked to al Qaeda. As American helicopter gunships and ground attack jets flew over central Baghdad, Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Ibrahim Shakir said 50 had been killed and 21 people arrested in the operation around Haifa Street, where officials have said more than 130 people have died since Saturday. U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with gunmen, saying they came under fire from mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. In nearby Sadar City, a house was hit by what residents say was a U.S. air strike late on Tuesday (January 9). "The first rocket stroke this house, a four members family are living in this house. Two women, a child and a man, he is in my age. We dragged the dead bodies. The second rocket landed in this house, it is my house. My wife was hurt in the attack and I took her to the hospital but I stayed in the house to protect it. The third rocket landed here (points) and the other three stroke the silo," said Mehdi, an eye witness. Doctors in the Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Hospital said that they received bodies of two men, a woman and two children they said died in the house. The U.S. military did not give an immediate comment on the attack. The Shi'ite district of Sadr city is a poor district where supporters of the radical Shi''ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are living. Moqtada al-Sadr formed a militia in 2003 known as Mehdi army, which is basically found in Baghdad, Najaf, Kufa and Kerbala. A spokesman for the U.S. military said it had no information on casualties on Haifa Street on Tuesday. A U.S. military statement said Iraqi and U.S. forces started a joint operation early on Tuesday aimed at capturing suspected insurgents and restoring Iraqi security forces' control. The violence comes as U.S. President George W. Bush prepares to unveil a new strategy in Iraq on Wednesday, expected to involve more U.S. troops for Baghdad. Bush's plan may represent his last best chance to salvage the U.S. mission in Iraq and turn around frustration with his handling of the war. Administration officials said Bush will announce plans to deploy about 20,000 more U.S. troops to join around 130,000 already in Iraq -- most to Baghdad and 4,000 to the volatile Anbar province. They said Bush will call for turning over security of all Iraqi provinces by November, but they cautioned that this did not represent a timetable for a U.S. pullout. Iraqis currently control only three of 18 provinces. A defense official said Bush will announce an increase in the training of Iraqi security forces through a program in which U.S. trainers live and work within an Iraqi unit. The president has a tough sell ahead of him, after nearly four years of war and scenes of carnage that have undercut his argument that victory is possible in Iraq. Democrats in control of the U.S. Congress vowed ahead of the 9 p.m. (0200 GMT on Thursday) address in the White House library that they would fight what they called an escalation of the conflict, which has already claimed more than 3,000 American lives. Democratic leaders in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, who planned to meet Bush on Wednesday before his speech, said they would seek a vote on his planned troop increase.

ITN Source | January 10, 2007

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