Iraq deputy PM 'caught in blast'

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

One of Iraq's deputy prime ministers, Salam Zaubai, has been caught up in a bomb blast near a Baghdad mosque, Iraqi officials have said.

Initial reports are confusing and it is not clear whether Mr Zaubai was injured in the blast, which happened while he was attending Friday prayers.

News agency AFP quoted a US military spokesman as saying Mr Zaubai had been taken to hospital.

Mr Zaubai, one of two deputy PMs, belongs to the main Sunni Arab group.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6483975.stm

[maddezmom]

1. just saw this on Reuters Alternet

IRAQ'S SUNNI DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER SURVIVES SUICIDE BOMB AT PRAY
IRAQ'S SUNNI DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER SURVIVES SUICIDE BOMB AT PRAYERS IN BAGHDAD, FIVE WOUNDED - HIS SPOKESMAN
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PAR338522.htm

[yellowcanine]

7. Heard on radio a few minutes ago his condition is NOT stable. The poop is really going to

hit the fan if he dies. The breakdown in security had to be an inside job. Someone in the Shiite-run Interior Ministry has some 'splainen to do.

[yellowcanine]

8. "Nothing happened to Zobaie, he is alive," the spokesman told Reuters. Well someone is lying because

other reports are saying he is undergoing emergency surgery and is "not stable".

[maddezmom]

9. AFP: Zubayi, one of the most prominent Sunni Arab leaders in the Shiite-led government, in surgery

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubayi was undergoing surgery after being wounded in a two-bomb assassination bid outside his Baghdad home on Friday that killed six other people.

The bombings ripped through the capital as Britain confirmed it was "urgently" seeking clarifications from Iran after 15 British sailors who had boarded a vessel in Iraqi waters were detained by the Iranian navy.

Zubayi, one of the most prominent Sunni Arab leaders in the Shiite-led government, was rushed to a US military hospital in Baghdad with chest and face injuries after the bombers struck while he was performing Muslim prayers.

~snip~

"I called the hospital. He is unstable and undergoing surgery," added Musawi, a spokesman for a mammoth five-week-old Iraqi-US security crackdown aimed at stemming the sectarian bloodshed gripping the capital.

"He was admitted in a US combat hospital an hour ago," US military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver said, providing no further details although Musawi said the minister sustained injuries to his chest and face.


more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070323/ts_afp/iraq_070323130730;_ylt=AlnF5Ij1exPyWzM4MTY02DGQOrgF

[maddezmom]

2. CNN has a breaking news banner now

Iraqi deputy prime minister taken to hospital after suicide bomb attack in Baghdad, wire services report.

[maddezmom]

3. three people were killed and 10 others wounded

Iraq deputy PM wounded in blast 9 minutes ago



BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubayi was wounded in an explosion on Friday and rushed to a US military hospital in Baghdad for treatment, a US military spokesman told AFP.

"He was admitted in a US combat hospital an hour ago," Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver said, providing no further details.

An Iraqi security source said three people were killed and 10 others wounded in a double suicide and car bomb attack near Zubayi's home, office and mosque close to the highly fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070323/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestpolitics_070323111336

[maddezmom]

4. updated:Iraq deputy PM hurt in suicide bombing

Iraq deputy PM hurt in suicide bombing By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - Iraq's Sunni deputy prime minister was wounded Friday in a suicide bombing at a mosque in the courtyard of his home. Eight people were killed in the attack near the heavily fortified Green Zone, including one of his advisers, police said.

The bomber blew himself up as Salam al-Zubaie, one of two deputies to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and other worshippers were leaving the mosque, according to police and a Sunni politician. It came after a statement purportedly by al-Qaida in Iraq singled out the Sunni deputy prime minister as a stooge "to the crusader occupiers."

Police said a car parked nearby exploded at about the same time.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said al-Zubaie was in a hospital run by the U.S. in the Green Zone but would not comment on his condition.

Ziad al-Ani, a top official of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said al-Zubaie was slightly wounded in his leg.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070323/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

[yellowcanine]

10. "Ziad al-Ani, a top official of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said al-Zubaie was slightly wounded

in his leg." Well that would be one of the understatements of the year.

[Roland99]

5. Wow. If The Surge were working any better Iraqis would be dying from joy!!

[sabra]

6. k & r

[Eugene]

11. Bomber ID'ed as one of Zaubai's own guards.

Source: Reuters

Iraq deputy PM wounded in suicide attack
23 Mar 2007 14:04:23 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Waleed Ibrahim

BAGHDAD, March 23 (Reuters) - Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zobaie,
a leading Sunni Arab politician, was wounded when a suicide bomber blew
himself up in a hall where he was attending prayers on Friday.

Officials said at least six members of Zobaie's entourage were killed in the
second assassination bid on a senior member of the U.S.-backed government
in a month.

One of Zobaie's aides named the suicide bomber as Wahab Saadi, one of the
deputy prime minister's own guards.

"He's wounded but it's not serious," an official in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's
office told Reuters after Maliki visited Zobaie at the U.S. military hospital in
Baghdad's international Green Zone.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PAR340730.htm

---

Article continues with the detained sailors incident.

[confludemocrat]

12. Anyone see the video of the UN Secy Gen flinching from a nearby rocket hit

in the middle of his news conference in a building in the green zone? Yeah, the surge is working great.

[sabra]

14. what was more telling was Iraqi PM al Maliki didn't even blink

[confludemocrat]

16. Here's another tidbit about that:

"A rocket or mortar bomb exploded 50 yards from the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, as he was telling reporters in Baghdad that he was thinking of boosting the UN presence in Iraq because of improved security."

-from Patrick Cockburn's report on the incident

[Eugene]

13. Bombing gravely injures Iraqi deputy PM (AP)

Source: Associated Press

Bombing gravely injures Iraqi deputy PM

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 9 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - Iraq's deputy prime minister, a Sunni who crossed
the country's sectarian divide to join the Shiite-led government,
was gravely injured Friday in a suicide bombing at a mosque in
the courtyard of his home, his chest pierced with shrapnel,
authorities said. Nine people were reported killed in the attack.

-snip-

The attack came after an Internet statement purportedly posted
by an al-Qaida umbrella group singled out the Sunni deputy prime
minister as a stooge "to the crusader occupiers." The group, the
Islamic State of Iraq, later claimed it was behind the bombing.

-snip-

Ziad al-Ani, a top official from the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party, said
al-Zubaie was in "serious condition" at the hospital's intensive
care unit. He said shrapnel had penetrated his chest.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070323/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

---

The word from PM Nouri al-Maliki's office earlier was "He's wounded
but it's not serious."

[ohio2007]

15. ...a Sunni who crossed the country's sectarian divide to join the Shiite-led government

And a Sunni suicide bomber almost took him out during prayers for siding with infidels