US military blames Al-Qaeda for Iraqi bombings

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2007

BAGHDAD (AFP) — The US military on Thursday blamed Al-Qaeda for a string of bombings across Iraq this week whose targets included local Sunni leaders fighting the extremist movement.

Since Monday at least 70 people have been killed although, according to the military, levels of violence half-way through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan are down by 38 percent on the same period in 2006.

Military commander Colonel Stephen Twitty in a statement blamed Al-Qaeda, which had promised a new offensive during Ramadan, for four suicide bomb attacks in northern Iraq on Wednesday.

One targeted a Sunni tribal leader in Sinjar, west of Mosul, who had been supporting police against Al-Qaeda.

The bomber rammed his car into the house of Sheikh Kanan al-Juhaimur before...