Bomb kills two in northern Baghdad

Updated at: 1434 PST, Wednesday, December 09, 2009
BAGHDAD: Two people were killed and five wounded after a bomb went off in Baghdad's northern district of Adhamiya on Wednesday, witnesses and police said.Police sources said that the bomb was placed behind the Al-Sabah Library while witnesses said the bomb had been placed next to a dead body."We woke up to the sound of a bang and when we asked, we were told that the body of a man had been found and the police and al-Sahwa (government-backed neighbourhood patrols) were informed. When they arrived, they prevented people from getting closer and with the blink of an eye, the body went off," a Baghdad resident said.The blast occurred a day after 112 people were killed in the heart of the Iraqi capital by car bombs.Tuesday's attacks were the first large, high-profile explosions in Baghdad since October 25, when two massive truck bombs killed 155 people at the Justice Ministry and the offices of the governor of Baghdad.The large-scale bomb attacks in Baghdad in August and October marked a change of tactics for the Sunni Islamist insurgency.Rather than frequent, smaller-scale attacks against soft targets such as markets or mosques, groups like al Qaeda now appeared to be aiming for spectacular and less frequent strikes against heavily defended government targets.The blasts could undermine Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's security claims in Iraq as he campaigns for a March 7 election and could rattle foreign oil executives due in Baghdad this week for an auction of oilfield contracts.Overall violence triggered by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion has fallen dramatically. In November, the Health Ministry reported the lowest monthly death toll of Iraqi civilians in six-and-a-half years.