Suicide bomber blows up key Iraqi bridge

18 October 2009

A SUICIDE bomber driving a dynamite-laden lorry destroyed a key bridge on a road used by the departing US military in Iraq yesterday, while separate attacks killed nine Iraqis.

There were no casualties in the blast that destroyed the bridge outside Ramadi, which is about 70 miles west of Baghdad. The road, which links Iraq to Syria and Jordan, is used heavily by the US military to transport equipment. It is also a major traffic.

Meanwhile, an attack on an Iraqi army convoy just outside Fallujah killed four soldiers and wounded 14.A US military spokesman in Iraq's western Anbar province,confirmed the explosion on the road bridge, which was near two Iraqi military bases that host US troops in the area.He said US forces have "previously used the bridge", but would not say what impact its destruction might have on military convoys transporting equipment out of Iraq to meet president Barack Obama's deadline for a pullout of combat troops by August 2010.The Anbar provincial police commander, Major General Tariq Yousif Mohammed, said he believed the blast was aimed at Iraqis. Traffic in and around Ramadi was backed up after the early morning explosion.Western Anbar province was once a hotbed of Iraq's Sunni-dominated insurgency and the scene of some of the most intense US fighting with militants. Violence subsided significantly after local tribes decided to align themselves with US forces rather than al-Qaeda.Attacks have not been halted entirely, however. Last Sunday, 19 people died in co-ordinated car bombings across Ramadi, Anbar's provincial capital, sparking fears of a reinvigorated insurgency that might destabilise Iraq before January's parliamentary elections. Elsewhere in Iraq, violence has intensified. The northern cities of Mosul and Kirkuk have suffered horrific attacks targeting ethnic minorities and Iraqi security forces. Last week, attackers threw hand grenades at an army patrol near Kirkuk, killing two civilians and wounding two others.In Mosul, two policemen and a civilian were killed in three unrelated incidents. A civilian was killed in a drive-by-shooting in a separate incident, and a suicide bomber armed with an assault rifle opened fire in a Sunni mosque before blowing himself up, killing at least 15 people.