Baghdad: A series of attacks and roadside
bomb explosions killed five Iraqi government employees on Wednesday
as insurgents maintain a steady campaign of attacks against
the country's institutions and security forces just two weeks
before the formal end of the US combat role in Iraq.
Suspected Sunni militants have frequently targeted Iraq's
policemen and soldiers looking to expose the inability of the
Shiite-dominated government to protect the country. The
looming departure of the US military has turned Iraqi forces
and government institutions into attractive targets for
insurgents, exploiting security gaps and the political vacuum
five months after an inconclusive election.
A bomb planted near a courthouse in Saddam Hussein's
hometown killed two security guards, Iraqi police and hospital
officials said.
Security officials at the civil court in Tikrit, 130
kilometres north of Baghdad, discovered a pair of bombs near
the main entrance to the building as people were arriving for
work in the morning.
Authorities evacuated the courthouse, but one of the
bombs went off killing the two guards and wounding three
civilians, police and hospital officials said.
It was not immediately clear whether the first bomb was
timed to detonate or whether it was mishandled. Police said
they defused the second bomb.
Also today, police said gunmen in western Baghdad killed
an employee of the Ministry of Housing and Reconstruction as
he was driving to work.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, August 19, 2010, 00:06