Iraq bombings, raid leave 40 dead

Iraq bombings, raid leave 40 dead

baghdad

Iraqi insurgents unleashed a string of bombings and other attacks primarily targeting the country’s Shiite community Saturday, leaving at least 40 dead in a challenge to government efforts to promote a sense of stability by preventing attacks during a major Muslim holiday.

The bloodshed appeared to be the worst in Iraq since Sept. 9, when insurgents launched a wave of bombings and other attacks that left at least 92 dead in one of the country’s bloodiest days this year.

The deadliest attacks struck in the evening in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. Police said a car packed with explosives blew up near a market, killing 12 people and wounding 27. Half an hour later, a second car bomb went off in one of Sadr city’s bus stations, killing 10 and injuring 31.

Kidnap Westerners, al-Qaida leader urges

cairo

The leader of al-Qaida has urged Muslims to kidnap Westerners to exchange for imprisoned jihadists, including a blind cleric serving a life sentence in the United States for a 1993 plot to blow up New York City landmarks.

In an undated two-hour videotape posted this week on militant forums, the Egyptian-born jihadist Ayman al-Zawahri also urged support for Syria’s uprising and called for the implementation of Islamic Shariah law in Egypt.

He said that abducting nationals of “countries waging wars on Muslims” is the only way to free “our captives, and Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman,” the Egyptian cleric.

Police: Shooting on freeway, spree linked

fowlerville, mich.

A motorist driving along Interstate 96 was shot and wounded Saturday in the latest in a string of shootings in southeastern Michigan, authorities said.

Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte said in a news release that the man was taken to the hospital Saturday afternoon after being shot in the left hip by a bullet that came through the driver’s-side door. He was listed in stable condition.

Bezotte said shots were fired earlier into another car, but its two occupants weren’t injured.

No injuries had been reported before Saturday in the series of at least 24 shootings in four counties.

Indonesia: Suspects planned attack

jakarta, indonesia

Indonesia’s anti-terror squad arrested 11 people suspected of planning a range of attacks on domestic and foreign targets including the U.S. Embassy and a site near the Australian Embassy, police said Saturday.

The suspects were arrested in raids Friday and Saturday in four provinces, national police spokesman Maj. Gen. Suhardi Alius said.

He said the suspects belonged to a group called the Harakah Sunni for Indonesian Society, or HASMI.

Satellite images suggest airstrike

cairo

Satellite images of the aftermath of an explosion at a Sudanese weapons factory this past week suggest the site was hit in an airstrike, a U.S. monitoring group said Saturday.

The Sudanese government has accused Israel of bombing its Yarmouk military complex in Khartoum, killing two people and leaving the factory in ruins.

The images released by the Satellite Sentinel Project to The Associated Press on Saturday showed six 52-foot-wide craters near the epicenter of Wednesday’s explosion.

Associated Press