Death Toll Raised in Basra Bombings

[bemildred]

Source: WSJ

BAGHDAD—The toll from bombings at a busy market in Basra on Thursday night rose to at least 25 killed and 70 wounded, most of them army and police officers, after medical and security officials in the southern Iraqi city on Friday provided a fuller account of the attacks.

At least 19 of those killed were members of the security forces, including senior Iraqi Army officers and the province's deputy police chief, Brig. Gen. Matar Dakhel, according to local health authorities.

The attacks occurred shortly after evening prayers when a roadside bomb exploded next to a cellular phone shop in the main commercial thoroughfare of the city's impoverished neighborhood of Khamsa Meel, or Five Miles. Minutes later a bomb planted inside a motorized rickshaw exploded nearby.

Then about 10 minutes later as police, army and other rescuers arrived at the scene, a third bomb planted in a motorcycle was detonated remotely—and caused the most casualties, according to security officials in the city.

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