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Residents pull victims out
of a burning minibus shortly after a bomb exploded in Baghdad August 27,
2006. A car bomb in central Baghdad killed five people and wounded 10 on
Sunday, police said. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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BAGHDAD,
Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Two powerful explosions rocked the Iraqi capital on Sunday
morning, causing high casualties, while the prime minister insisted violence was
decreasing in his country.
A bomb-rigged mini-van detonated near an entrance to
the Palestine Hotel in downtown Baghdad, killing at least nine people and
wounding 15 others, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua.
"A minibus detonated at about 10:30 a.m. (0630 GMT)
while traveling on Sa'adon Street between Baghdad Hotel and Meridian Hotel," the
source said.
"Black smoke rose over the area where the minibus
detonated," witnesses at the scene also told Xinhua, adding another vehicle
caught fire near the area and volunteers were evacuating bodies and wounded
people.
Earlier on Sunday, another car bomb went off in the parking lot of the state-run al-Sabah
newspaper building in Baghdad's northern
neighborhood of Waziriyah, killing two civilians and wounding 20 others.
At least 25 cars caught fire in the blast, and the
newspaper building was badly damaged.
"The powerful blast damaged the production department
in the building. It was the second time I survived deadly attacks. I am going to
quit my job here. It is so risky," Jamal Muhammed, an employee of the daily told
Xinhua by telephone.
The Sunday's bloody blasts were seen as the latest
challengers to Iraqi government's peace efforts to stem uprising violence.
On Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met
several hundreds tribal leaders across the country for the first time. He
appealed to them to exert their influence in a bid to promote the stagnant
national reconciliation process.
Since the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in
Samarra on Feb.22, Iraq has been engulfed in tit-for-tat Shiite-Sunni violence
that has killed thousands and pushed the country on the brink of a civil war.
Al-Maliki proposed a 24-point national reconciliation
plan in June with a view to quell the sectarian bloodshed, but failed to curb
the rampant violence.
In an exclusive interview with CNN on Sunday,
al-Maliki said violence in Iraq was decreasing , despite daily reports of
attacks. He also insisted that his government was making progress in efforts to
combat the Shiites-Sunnis sectarian violence and terrorism by insurgents.
"The violence is not increasing. We're not in a civil
war. Iraq will never be in a civil war. The violence is in decrease and our
security ability is increasing," the premier said through an interpreter.
Al-Maliki echoed General John Abizaid, a top U.S.
general in the Middle East, who said last week that a major security crackdown
launched by U.S. and Iraqi troops since August had achieved progress and Iraq
was far from civil war.
Though the statistics show violence have dropped in
Iraq, some analysts cautioned it was too early to be optimistic and the gains
would be lost unless the Iraqi government reconciles rival religious sects.
Enditem
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Residents and a policeman
pull a victim out of a burning minibus shortly after a bomb exploded in
Baghdad August 27, 2006.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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