Iraq: Car Bombs Near Iranian Embassy

[sabra]

Source: AP

BAGHDAD (AP) - Two car bombs exploded near the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, police said, and a Sunni Arab insurgent group claimed responsibility for a similar attack the day before.

Tuesday's two car bombs exploded within two minutes of each other at about 10 a.m. in a public parking lot located about 150 yards from the front of the Iranian Embassy, wounding six civilians but causing no damage to the embassy or its guards, a police officer said on condition of anonymity out of concern for his own security.

On Monday, two parked car bombs exploded outside the embassy in Karradah Mariam, an area of Baghdad that is about 200 yards from the heavily guarded Green Zone, where the Iraqi government and the U.S. and British embassies operate. One bomb exploded near the same public parking lot at about noon, killing one civilian and wounding another. At 4:30 p.m., the other parked car bomb exploded close to a police patrol near the Iranian Embassy, killing one civilian and wounding two officers, police said.

On Tuesday, the prominent Iraqi Sunni insurgent group Islamic Ansar al-Sunnah issued a statement on its Web site claiming responsibility for Monday's bombing near the parking lot.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6582273,00.html

[Newsjock]

1. "Prominent"?

On Tuesday, the prominent Iraqi Sunni insurgent group Islamic Ansar al-Sunnah issued a statement on its Web site claiming responsibility for Monday's bombing near the parking lot.

Try to Google "islamic ansar al-sunnah." You'll find that the only references to this group are all from recent news reports about this attack.

"Prominent" group!? (Yes, I know I didn't search in Arabic, but a "prominent" group should have at least one English-language reference prior to this.) And there are many references to similar names, often without the "Islamic" prefix, but still.

Oh, and where is this mysterious "website" that's claiming responsibility? Who runs it?

[sabra]

2. it appears to be a spelling thing?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/ansar-al-sunna.htm

Jaish Ansar al-Sunna

The Ansar al-Sunna, or Army of the Protectors of the Sunna , is a is a Sunni extremist group said to be linked with al-Qaida. Ansar Al Sunna is a faction of Ansar Al Islam and reportedly has close ties with the Al-Zarqawi network. Jaish Ansar al-Sunna appears to be a successor organization to Ansar al-Islam or a subset of it. It is sometimes hard to know exactly where the boundaries of these groups are. These terrorists are targeting the Iraqis and killing many, many more Iraqis than they are killing coalition forces.

The group claimed responsibility for twin bombing attacks on 01 February 2004 in Iraq's northern city of Arbil that left at least 105 people dead and more than 130 others injured. The group made the announcement in a statement posted in Arabic on a Web site that frequently carries statements by Islamic militants. The near-simultaneous suicide attacks occurred at about 10:45 a.m. (0745 GMT) on as the offices were packed with hundreds ofpeople celebrating the Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, a major Muslim holiday. Several senior politicians from both the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) were killed in the attacks. But Kurdish political groups fingered Ansar al-Islam in the Arbil attack.

[Igel]

3. Wasn't al-Ansar the group up in Kurdistan? n/t

[Thor_MN]

4. nah, that the al-Ansar People's Front.