Continue reading »]]> Indonesian police Saturday were studying DNA evidence from the remains of two suicide bombers who carried out twin attacks on luxury Jakarta hotels, as security was tightened across the country.

Suspected Islamist suicide bombers detonated powerful devices at the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in an upmarket business district Friday, leaving nine dead and up to 50 injured including at least 18 foreigners.

A New Zealand businessman was confirmed dead and Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who is due in Jakarta later Saturday, said he feared the worst for three missing Australians, including diplomat Craig Senger.

National police chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri called on hotels and shopping malls across the vast, mainly Muslim archipelago of 234 million people to raise their security protocols amid warnings of follow-up attacks.

A military spokesman said 500 troops were on standby to deploy in Jakarta in support of police.

Police across the Philippines were also on heightened alert over fears homegrown Islamists could try to emulate the Jakarta bombings, and citizens were urged to report any suspicious behaviour or unattended baggage.

Hotels in New York were also increasing security although Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said there was no information that a Jakarta-style attack was imminent.

US President Barack Obama condemned the bombings and offered Indonesia help in the recovery effort.

“I strongly condemn the attacks that occurred this morning (Friday) in Jakarta and extend my deepest condolences to all of the victims and their loved ones,” he said.

Manchester United were due to stay at the Ritz-Carlton next week as part of an Asian tour but they cancelled the trip, denying a sell-out crowd of 100,000 the chance to see the English football giants play an Indonesia XI on Monday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, the worst in Indonesia since 2005, but suspicion inevitably fell on the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network responsible for the 2002 Bali attacks that killed 202 people.

Investigators said they found an unexploded bomb, as well as explosive chemicals and bomb-making materials in room 1808 of the Marriott, which they believe served as a control centre for the attackers.

The bombs were packed with nails, ballbearings, nuts and bolts to maximise the carnage, and appeared to be “identical” to ones previously used in JI attacks, police said.

They were also the same as bombs found in a recent raid on an Islamic boarding school in Central Java, carried out as part of the hunt for master-bombmaker Noordin Mohammed Top, leader of a JI splinter group.

Noordin is wanted for his role in the Bali attacks as well as a 2003 bombing at the Jakarta Marriott, which killed 12 people, and the 2005 truck-bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was re-elected in a landslide on July 8, said the attack was an act of terror that would have “wide effects on our economy, trade, tourism and image in the eyes of the world”.

Tourism operators on the Hindu-majority resort island of Bali said they feared for the lucrative tourism industry, which was just getting back to normal after the horrific attacks of 2002.

“I am afraid that the tourism sector which is now thriving in Indonesia would be affected significantly,” Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry representative for small businesses Sandiaga Uno told Anatara news agency.

“We hope that the bomb blasts would not deter foreign and domestic investors in making the investment in the country.”

Tourism is one of the biggest sources of foreign capital for Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, which has avoided recession in the global financial crisis, but needs more foreign investment to maintain its growth trajectory.

The country’s mainstream Muslim groups joined Yudhoyono and world leaders in condemning the attacks, saying they could never be justified in Islamic teachings.

Condemnation poured in from around the world including from UN chief Ban Ki-moon, and from Indonesia’s neighbours in Southeast Asia, where JI is accused of plotting to create a pan-Islamic state.

Indonesian police examine remains for clues

Continue reading »]]> BAGHDAD – Suicide bombers struck two Shiite mosques in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens during celebrations marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

To the north, suspected Shiite militiamen gunned down six members of a Sunni family, including women and children, police reported.

Those attacks occurred four days after a series of explosions killed 32 people and wounded nearly 100 in Shiite areas of Baghdad, raising fears that al-Qaida in Iraq is trying to provoke Sunni-Shiite reprisal killings now that the last of the American “surge” troops have left the country.

In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives about 20 yards from a mosque in Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad. The blast killed 14 people, including three Iraqi soldiers, and wounded 28, police said.

The death toll would likelier have been higher, but Iraqi soldiers prevented the attacker from driving closer to the mosque, police said.

“Pools of blood and the smell of burned flesh were everywhere and I saw a man of about 70 bleeding and lying on the ground,” said Ammar Hashim, 25, whose brother was also wounded by broken glass in his shop.

In the other attack in the capital, a suicide bomber who appeared to be in his late teens detonated his explosive belt as worshippers were leaving the Rasoul mosque in the eastern New Baghdad district.

Ten people died and 24 were wounded, police and officials at al-Kindi and Ibn al-Nasif hospitals said. The dead included a guard who blocked the attacker from entering the mosque, police said.

The Iraqi army said 17 people were killed in the two blasts. But area hospitals said that figure did not include victims who died later from their wounds.

The attack on the Sunni family occurred in Diyala, a heavily mixed province north of the capital. Police said gunmen sprayed the family’s vehicle with automatic weapons fire as they traveled to the provincial capital of Baqouba to visit relatives.

The dead included two children, three women and a man, police said. Another woman and her small child were wounded.

Police said the area was controlled by mostly Shiite security forces and that they suspected Shiite militiamen were responsible for the attack.

The police officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Victims of the Baghdad attacks were attending prayers marking Eid al-Fitr, the religious holiday that comes at the end of Ramadan. Sunnis and other Shiite groups celebrated Eid al-Fitr earlier in the week.

Iraqi police and soldiers have been on alert for sectarian attacks around Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast from dawn until dusk and religious fervor runs high.

Last Sunday, five bombs exploded in Shiite areas of Baghdad, killing 32 people and wounding about 100. U.S. officials believed al-Qaida was behind the blasts.

Shiite cleric and lawmaker Jalaluddin al-Saghir blamed the mosque attacks on “the beasts of al-Qaida” that consider Shiites as religious heretics and collaborators with the Americans.

“After being weakened and isolated, the terrorists want to make a comeback in the capital and show that they are still powerful,” al-Saghir told The Associated Press. “I think the al-Qaida efforts will fail because Iraqis now are more aware of the heavy price of any new round of sectarian violence.”

The main Sunni political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, joined in condemning the mosque attacks and called on Iraqis to unite against “those who want to transfer political disputes into the language of violence.”

Bloody assaults on Shiite civilians helped trigger the massive wave of sectarian fighting that led to President Bush’s decision to dispatch nearly 30,000 reinforcements to Iraq in 2007.

The last of those “surge” troops left Iraq in July after violence in the capital dropped to its lowest level in four years.

U.S. commanders have acknowledged a small increase in attacks recently in the Baghdad area as Iraqi forces assume a greater role in security. Late Thursday, a rocket or mortar shell exploded in the Green Zone, causing no injuries, the U.S. military said. It was the first known attack against the U.S.-protected area in weeks.

In a statement Thursday, U.N. special representative Staffan de Mistura expressed concern over the “recent spike in violence,” urging Iraqis to maintain unity “in foiling the aims of those who want to push them back into the murderous cycle of sectarian violence.”

Also Thursday, a bomb wounded four American soldiers in western Baghdad, according to U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Steven Stover. He gave no other details, but Baghdad police said the attacker detonated an explosive-laden car alongside a U.S. convoy.

Two Iraqi civilians were also wounded, a police official said on condition of anonymity because he was also not authorized to speak to the press.

Suicide attackers strike Shiite mosques, kill 24 – Yahoo! News

Continue reading »]]> ALGIERS (AFP) – Three people were killed and six others were wounded in a suicide attack near the Algerian capital, APS news agency quoted security officials as saying on Monday.

The bomber blew up his car packed with explosives near the town of Dellys, about 40 kilometres (20 miles) east of Algiers, late Sunday at the end of the daily Ramadan fast.

APS did not indicate who might have been targeted in the attack.

The lives of those injured were not in danger, the report said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing, the first in Algeria since the start of Ramadan on September 1, state radio reported.

The month-long fast was preceded by a series of attacks, with the deadliest killing 48 people on August 19 near Algiers.

That attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda’s north African offshoot, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Three dead in Algerian suicide attack: report – Yahoo! News

Continue reading »]]> JERUSALEM, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) — Over a dozen Israeli soldiers and some civilians were wounded here late Monday night when a Palestinian man steered a car into a crowd, said police and rescue workers.

The driver was shot dead at the scene by a military officer in the incident, which happened around 11:00 p.m. (2000 GMT) at a busy intersection just outside the Old City, said the police, terming it a terrorist attack.

A total of 15 soldiers and four civilians were wounded and rushed into hospital for treatment, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told Xinhua at the spot. The Magen David Adom rescue service reported that two of them were in serious conditions.

The driver was identified early Tuesday morning as Kasem Mugrabi, 19, from an Arab village named Jabel Mukaber in east Jerusalem, a mainly Arab section of the holy city that the Palestinians want to be the capital of their future state.

“I saw the car coming quickly and hit a group of soldiers and students standing there,” local daily Ha’aretz quoted an eyewitness as saying. “It happened very fast. It was impossible to know beforehand that this is what he intended to do.”

Wails of police sirens were heard across downtown Jerusalem when the incident took place. Xinhua correspondents who rushed to the scene saw the vehicle, a black BMW, lying on the pedestrian lane, with its front bumper and hood contorted and its front and rear window glass smashed.

Local TV network Channel 2 reported that a previously unknown group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The police has launched an investigation into the incident, on which they did not received any prior intelligence, Rosenfeld added. Franco told reporters that the driver was apparently acting alone.

A resident living nearby, who gave her name as Esther, told Xinhua at the scene that she noticed the car roving around the spot, with three people in it, for at least half an hour before the incident happened. As to the fact that only a driver was in the car during the attack, she added that she did not know where the other two had gone.

Separately, Israel Radio reported that a large group of mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews chased an Arab into the Old City following the attack.

The police is likely to further beef up the security measures in and around Jerusalem, as the level of alert has already been kept high in the holy city recently due to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the upcoming Jewish New Year’s Day and other holidays.

In the wake of the incident, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak released a statement demanding a green light to demolish homes of those who he called Palestinian terrorists as deterrence.

Exactly two months ago, a Palestinian from east Jerusalem rammed a bulldozer into pedestrians and cars in downtown Jerusalem, injuring 16 people, before he was shot dead.

A similar attack shocked the holy city 10 days earlier, during which another Palestinian went on a bulldozer rampage in the downtown area of the holy city, killing three Israelis and injuring over 40, before he was killed.

The two bulldozer incidents followed a shooting spree at a religious school in Jerusalem on March 6, during which eight Israeli students were killed by a Palestinian before he was shot dead at the scene.

After each of the three attacks, calls increased among the Israeli public to destroy the attackers’ homes, a move the Israeli Supreme Court ruled against several years ago.

Police confirms: 19 hurt in vehicle attack in Jerusalem_English_Xinhua

Continue reading »]]> Rescuers picked their way yesterday through the smouldering ruins of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, looking for more bodies after a huge bomb devastated the building in one of Pakistan’s worst terrorist attacks.

The death toll last night stood at 53, with 266 wounded, after a bomber blew up a lorry containing 600kg of explosive on Saturday evening. The corpse of Ivo Zdarek, the Czech Ambassador, was among the bodies pulled from the rubble. Mr Zdarek, 47, only moved to Islamabad in August. Two Americans, said to be US Defence Department employees, were also killed in the blast but their identities were not revealed.

The blast came after dusk on Saturday, when hundreds of people were dining in several restaurants inside the hotel. Closed-circuit TV footage showed the driver of the lorry ramming into the hotel’s security gates but failing to breach a second barrier.

Rehman Malik, an Interior Ministry official, said that the attacker intended to drive into the lobby of the hotel and had apparently tried to convince the guards to lower the second barrier. When they would not, he blew himself up in the lorry’s cabin. The guards then tried to put out the fire in the lorry, and it was several minutes before the second, enormous blast devastated the Marriott.

Abdur Rehman, 45, who was on security duty, said: “The bomber fired several shots in the air when we tried to stop him, scaring us all away. Then after a few minutes the truck exploded with a massive blast, setting the building on fire.” Mohammed Latif, a private car driver, saw the incident from the hotel car park. “The entire area was engulfed in thick smoke and pieces of glass and debris was flying all over,” he said. “People, many of them stained in blood, came rushing out from a side gate.”

Akbar Khan, a World Bank employee, was dining with two of his friends at one of the hotel’s restaurants when he heard a thud. “Minutes after, there was a huge blast and the lights went off. Then the ceiling fell on us.” Mr Khan, whose head and arms were injured, added: “I saw people scaling 12ft walls at the back of the hotel to save their lives.”

Rescue teams searched the blackened building room by room but were hampered by fires still burning in some areas 24 hours after the explosion. “There could be some charred bodies inside,” a senior official said.

At least two Britons were among the hundreds wounded in the attack, which had the luxury hotel in the capital’s high-security zone in flames for several hours, completely destroying the five-storey building. Both were discharged from hospital after treatment for minor injuries.

At the entrance to the Marriott, a favourite haunt of foreigners, journalists and wealthy Pakistanis, a crater 50ft wide and 20ft deep bore witness to the power of the explosion.

Many of the victims were killed or injured by the intense heat of the blast, which also burst gas pipelines. “Bodies were charred beyond recognition,” said a rescue worker. Doctors at the city’s main hospital said that the death toll could rise with dozens of wounded in a critical condition.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but investigators said that the attack bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda operation. “The purpose was to destabilise democracy,” Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Prime Minister, said. He added that Chechen, Uzbek or Arab militants operating from the border areas could have been involved.

Mr Gilani said that the bomber had attacked the Marriott only after tight security prevented him from reaching the Parliament building or the Prime Minister’s office, which are only a few hundred yards from the hotel. The explosion took place just two hours after President Zardari had made his first address to Parliament, calling for terrorism to be rooted out. Mr Gilani, Mr Zardari, the chief of army staff and MPs were at a state dinner half a mile away when the bomb went off.

The Interior Minister suggested that Tehrik e-Taleban e-Pakistan (TTP), an outlawed militant group operating from the lawless tribal area, was involved in the attack.

Continue reading »]]> JAKARTA: A bomb exploded Sunday near an airport built by a U.S. gold mining giant in Indonesia’s Papua Province, the police said. No one was hurt and there was little damage.

The blast about a kilometer from the runway at Moses Kilangin airport came days after two mortars were detonated on a road leading to the massive mine operated by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold.

“Whoever did this is trying to create unrest and to get international attention,” the region’s police chief, Major General Bagus Ekodanto, said as an anti-terrorism unit and bomb squad rushed to the scene.

Papua is home to separatist rebels who have long denounced the mine operated by PT Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of the New Orleans company. They see it as a symbol of Jakarta’s rule over the region.

A little-known group calling itself the West Papua National Army circulated pamphlets last week demanding its closure, but the police have refused to speculate on who was behind any of the attacks.

The police chief would not say whether the bomb that exploded Sunday was related to the blasts Friday. But other officials noted that all three makeshift bombs were made out of old mortars.

Ekodanto said the blast Sunday occurred in an empty field and that no one was hurt. Part of the mortar hit a small electrical depot, creating a loud explosion, said Colonel Paulus Waterpau, a senior detective. Residents said they could hear the blast a few kilometers away.

Access to the airport was cut off and witnesses said Freeport’s mine in Timika also was under heavy security.

Freeport’s mining complex in Timika is one of the world’s largest single producers of copper and gold, the company says on its Web site. Open-pit mining at the site began in 1990 and is expected to continue until mid-2015, it says.

The Grasberg mine has seen violent worker protests in the past, and environmental groups accuse the company of pollution and stripping the desperately poor province of its natural resources.

Separatist rebels were blamed for a 2004 ambush on a road leading to the mine that killed two Americans. Indonesian security forces were initially suspected of taking part in those killings to extort higher protection payments from Freeport.

Continue reading »]]> BAGHDAD: Eight people were killed and 25 wounded Wednesday in double bombings in a busy section of central Baghdad filled with currency exchange shops and medical clinics, according to an official with the Interior Ministry.

The first bomb exploded at about 11:20 a.m. and appears, according to several witnesses, to have been placed in a pickup truck that belonged to Raad al-Maliki, a former member of the local municipal council and owner of one of the money-changing businesses that dot the area. Maliki, who was inside his shop at the time, survived the bombing.

About five minutes after the first blast, a second bomb planted next to a kiosk that sells cigarettes and soft drinks about 100 meters away exploded. Iraqi and U.S. soldiers immediately cordoned off the area and cut off traffic.

Smashed storefronts, burned vehicle remains and scattered debris were reminiscent of scenes Baghdad residents have been eager to forget.

A spokesman for the U.S. military, who blamed the attack on Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, put the toll at 3 killed and 16 wounded, while a source at Yarmouk Hospital, where some of the casualties were taken, cited 5 killed and 20 wounded.

“The security improvement is just in the media; it has nothing to do with reality,” said Ali Mahmoud, a grocery owner caught up in the bombings. His shirt was stained with the blood of a victim he had helped.

Earlier, a roadside bomb in Baghdad’s Zayouna district killed one passerby. The bomber’s apparent target was the municipal council chief of the Jadida district of Baghdad, according to the Interior Ministry official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press. Another roadside bomb in Zayouna, near the Culture Ministry, killed one and wounded five, according to the official.

The bombings in Baghdad come two days after a twin car bombing in another central neighborhood killed 12 and wounded 37. Bomb attacks, assassinations and shootings in all of Iraq, including Baghdad, have claimed the lives of at least 90 people and wounded dozens of others over the past week.

Still, overall levels of violence countrywide stand at their lowest in four years. In August there were 101 attacks in Baghdad, compared with 800 in August 2007, according to Lieutenant Colonel Steve Stover, a spokesman for the U.S. military unit in charge of the capital.

But the bombings in central Baghdad underscore the fragility of the situation and reversibility of the recent security gains, which General Raymond Odierno, the incoming commander of American troops here, warned of Tuesday during a handover ceremony as he took over from General David Petraeus.

In other violence Wednesday, a minibus traveling between the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk and the mainly Sunni Arab town of al-Rashad was attacked by gunmen, resulting in the death of three of the occupants and the wounding of one, according to Lieutenant Abdullah al-Obeidi of the al-Rashad police.

In Baghdad, deputies in Parliament continued to wrangle over a proposal on postponing elections in Kirkuk Province, a hotly contested area with populations of Kurds, Turkmen and Sunni Arabs. This issue has held up agreement on a new provincial election law.

An employee of the New York Times contributed reporting from Kirkuk.

3 GIs charged with murder

Three U.S. soldiers were charged with murder Wednesday in the deaths of four Iraqis who were bound, blindfolded, shot in the head and dumped into a Baghdad canal last year, The Associated Press reported from Frankfurt.

Four other U.S. soldiers have already been charged with conspiracy in the deaths. The Iraqis were killed in retribution for casualties inflicted on the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, according to military prosecutors.

Continue reading »]]> Heavily armed militants opened fire on the United States Embassy in Sana, Yemen, on Wednesday and detonated a car bomb at its gates, in an attack that left at least 16 people dead including six of the attackers, Yemeni officials said.

No Americans were killed or wounded in the blast or when guards began to return fire, said a Yemeni official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Yemeni security officials and witnesses said the death toll was at least 16, including four bystanders, one of them an Indian woman. The other dead were six attackers and six security guards, the Yemeni officials said, speaking in return for anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Yemen’s official Saba news agency also reported that 16 people were killed.

Ryan Gliha, an embassy spokesman, said via e-mail that the attack took place at 9:15 a.m. The embassy would remain closed for now, he said, but gave no further details.

It was the deadliest attack in years on an American target in Yemen, a poor south Arabian country of 22 million where militants aligned with Al Qaeda have carried out a number of recent strikes.

The attack began when a car raced up to the heavily fortified embassy compound. Several attackers got out and began firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles at the guards who returned the fire, the Yemeni official said.

A second car then drove into the compound’s gate and exploded in what appeared to be a suicide bombing, the official said.

President George W. Bush said the attackers were trying to make the United States “lose our nerve and to withdraw from regions of the world.”

“This attack is a reminder that we are at war with extremists who will murder innocent people to achieve their ideological objectives,” Bush said, Reuters reported.

A State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack, said the attack bore “all the hallmarks of an al Qaeda attack,” Reuters reported.

The attack was especially shocking to many Yemenis because it came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Yemen has long been viewed as a haven for jihadists. It became a special concern for the United States in 2000, after Al Qaeda operatives rammed the destroyer Cole in Aden harbor, on Yemen’s southern coast, killing 17 American sailors.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Yemen actively pursued a counterterrorism partnership with the United States, and its American-trained forces have had some important successes in fighting militants.

But over the last two years, jihadists claiming allegiance to Al Qaeda appear to have reorganized, releasing more propaganda material on the Internet and carrying out attacks. In July 2007, suicide bombers killed eight Spanish tourists in eastern Yemen, and there were two unsuccessful attacks on oil installations.

Earlier this year there were several attacks on foreign embassies. In March, mortars fired at the United States Embassy compound in Sana struck a nearby school for girls instead, killing a security guard and wounding more than a dozen students.

The American compound has also been the scene of occasional political violence in previous years, including a large demonstration against the American-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, in which two Yemenis were fatally shot and dozens wounded.

Yemen has also faced serious security threats on other fronts, including an intermittent rebellion in the north that has kept the country’s military engaged, and continuing riots and instability in the south.

In Washington, Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said that the attack showed that the United States had to maintain its “aggressive counterterrorism programs aimed at fighting the jihadist threat.”

“Today’s attack in Yemen is a potent reminder that America, and Americans abroad, still remain the top targets for jihadist terrorists,” he said in a statement.

Continue reading »]]> At least seven people were killed and more than 70 hurt when blasts tore through crowds celebrating independence day, Mexican authorities have said.

The explosions happened shortly before midnight, as people gathered in the centre of the western city of Morelia.

Local media reports suggest they may have been caused by grenades.

The city is the capital of Michoacan, a state hit by a wave of drug gang violence in recent years. It is not known who was behind Monday’s blasts.

The governor of Michocoan, Leonel Godoy, said “organised crime” – a term often used by Mexican officials to denote drug cartels – was behind the latest attack.

Drug-related violence in Mexico has claimed the lives of more than 2,700 people so far this year.

“Without doubt we are faced with a terrorist attack,” the governor added.

Shoot-out

The explosions went off in the main square of Morelia as the crowds celebrated the beginning of the traditional re-enactment of Mexico’s cry for independence, known as El Grito, or The Shout.

“The dead and wounded… were the poorest people, who have no other form of entertainment,” Reuters news agency quoted Mr Godoy as saying.

Dozens of police officers were involved in a shoot-out after chasing suspects near the scene, the local El Sol de Morelia newspaper reported.

It said soldiers were deployed to control routes in and out of the city, which lies some 250km (155 miles) west of the capital, Mexico City.

President Felipe Calderon’s office said in a statement that it condemned the violence “in the strongest terms” and would redouble its efforts to support the state and its investigation.

Mr Calderon, whose home state is Michoacan, had taken part in independence day celebrations with tens of thousands of people in Mexico City’s central Zocalo square.

Continue reading »]]> At least 22 people have been killed and 32 wounded by a female suicide bomber who blew herself at a police gathering in Iraq’s Diyala province, police say.

The guests were attending an Iftar banquet, when Muslims break their fast during the month of Ramadan, in Balad Ruz, 70km (45 miles) north of Baghdad.

Officials told the BBC the party was being held by a policeman to celebrate his recent release from US detention.

Earlier, two car bombs exploded in central Baghdad, killing 12 people.

The blasts were in the busy Karrada district, near a courthouse and passport office.

Security forces targeted

Local sources said a police officer was holding a large party to celebrate his release on Monday from a US-run detention centre, Camp Bucca, when the suicide bomber walked into his home.

Some of the wounded were taken to a joint US-Iraqi base nearby for treatment.

Suicide bombers have frequently targeted the Iraqi police force.

The BBC’s Mike Sergeant in Baghdad says there have been fewer attacks across the country in recent months, but in Diyala province the level of violence is still relatively high.

There has also been an increase in attacks carried out by female suicide bombers, our correspondent says.

Earlier, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the challenge in Iraq was how to preserve and extend security gains at a time when the number of US troops there was falling.

Visiting Iraq for the eighth time in the past two years, Mr Gates said the US military’s presence in Iraq was now a mission in transition, with more responsibility being passed to Iraqi forces.