Iraq Watch: January 9, 2006

Suicide Bombers Strike Iraqi Police Festival

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two suicide bombers disguised as Iraqi police officers attacked a 'National Police Day' ceremony being held at an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad. The festival - which was attended by such high-ranking officials as U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, and Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi - marked the 84th anniversary of the creation of the Iraqi national police force. None of the notable figures present at the ceremony were wounded as they were seated in a grandstand several hundred yards away from the explosions.

The perpetrators, dressed as a police major and a lieutenant colonel, were able to pass through security checkpoints and make their way into the heavily-fortified compound where they proceeded to detonate their explosive-laden belts killing at least 29 and wounding 18.

The insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the bombing through a statement posted on the Internet. Al-Qaida in Iraq said the attack was carried out "to avenge the Sunnis who were subjected to all sorts of torture at the prisons of this ministry."

Meanwhile, the Christian Science Monitor announced that one of its freelance reporter's has been abducted. Jill Carroll, 28, was kidnapped Saturday as she was on her way to interview a prominent Sunni politician in Baghdad's restive al-Adel neighborhood. Carroll's translator, Allan Enwiyah, was killed during the course of the heist. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the incident.

In other violence Monday, a high-ranking Iraqi judge was assassinated in front of his home in the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Khalid Hazzaa Bayati was gunned down in the town's central Mualimeen district. The militant group Ansar al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Elsewhere, the executed bodies of five unidentified civilians were found in Baghdad late yesterday.