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| Serbian ammunition factory explodes, no casualties Posted: 27 Dec 2010 06:42 PM PST BELGRADE, Dec 28 — A series of explosions badly damaged an ammunition factory in the central Serbian town of Cacak yesterday, but there were no casualties, officials said. The factory is owned by Sloboda, which produces artillery ammunition, propellants and explosives, and home appliances. "Workers escaped unharmed and are now being evacuated," factory union head Dragan Jekic told Reuters. A similar blast killed three Sloboda workers in 2003 and two were injured in smaller incidents earlier this year. Predrag Maric, head of the interior ministry's emergencies department, said the first explosion took place at 4.45 p.m. (1545 GMT) and was followed by a series of secondary blasts. "According to workers who escaped the blast, part of the ammunition production line went off, but we still cannot approach the area until all explosions end," Maric said. "Initially we believed it was an ammunition warehouse." The Sloboda plant was badly damaged in 1999 by Nato's bombing campaign against Serbia. The Serbian arms industry has since recovered and exports weapons and ammunition for small arms and artillery to Asian and African countries as well as the West, including some NATO members. It was the third major explosion to hit Serbian ammunition dumps and arms factories in recent years. Four years ago a depot in central Serbia exploded, injuirng 22 people, and in 2009 a blast in an ammunition plant in west Serbia killed six people. — Reuters
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| Twin suicide bombings kill 17 in Iraq’s Ramadi Posted: 27 Dec 2010 04:36 PM PST  The crater created by a bomb attack is seen in Ramadi, 100 km west of Baghdad on December 27, 2010. — Reuters pic It was the second attack this month on the compound, which houses the provincial council ands the police headquarters for Anbar province, and the third bombing there in the past year. "The death toll is 17 killed and between 50 and 60 wounded," Lieutenant General Hussein Kamal, a deputy interior minister, told Reuters. Anbar Governor Qassim Mohammed said the first blast happened when a minibus exploded outside the compound and the second was caused by a suicide bomber on foot, disguised as a policeman. "Prime Minister (Nuri al-Maliki) has ordered an investigative committee to be formed due to the repeated targeting of (this) building in Anbar province," Kamal said. The sprawling desert province of Anbar was the heartland of a Sunni Islamist insurgency after the 2003 US-led invasion. Its main cities, Ramadi and Falluja, witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the war. While overall violence in Iraq has dropped from the peak of sectarian warfare in 2006-7, bombings and attacks still occur daily, and insurgents are still capable of large-scale attacks. At the site of yesterday's blasts, pools of blood dotted the ground, footage from Reuters Television showed. The stumps of the suicide bomber's severed legs lay at the scene. Debris from wrecked cars littered the site. Ali Mahmoud, a doctor at Ramadi hospital, said hospital records put the toll at 16 people killed, including five policemen, and 52 wounded, including 12 policemen. The emergency room was filled with patients wounded in the attack. The hospital was also crowded with people who had responded to an appeal broadcast on mosque loudspeakers to donate blood to help the injured. "What shall we do to save ourselves? There is nothing left but to make ourselves prisoners in our homes," said Talib Ali, 50, who was at the hospital attending to his son Mohammed, who had been wounded in his abdomen and back. AL QAEDA ATTACK Hikmet Khalaf, the deputy governor of Anbar, blamed the attack on the Iraqi wing of al Qaeda. "The goal of al Qaeda is clear, to strike at security in the province. This is not the first attack targeting the local government buildings. The attackers chose a crowded intersection in Ramadi to kill large numbers of civilians who were headed to the government buildings," he told Reuters. Earlier this month, Iraqi security forces arrested 39 al Qaeda militants, including the group's leadership in Anbar province and one of its top officers in Iraq. "The arrest of senior al Qaeda leaders in Anbar ... a month ago does not mean that al Qaeda has ended because al Qaeda has the ability to organise itself in a short period," Kamal said. "We were expecting such attacks from al Qaeda, not just in Anbar but in all of Iraq, to prove its presence at this stage, especially after the formation of a new government, to make the security forces look helpless, weak and like a failure." Iraq formed a new government last week after months of factional squabbling, subduing fears that insurgents could exploit the political vacuum to destabilise the country. The last attack on the government compound in Ramadi happened on December 12, when a suicide car bomber killed 13 people and wounded dozens. In December 2009, twin suicide blasts killed at least 24 and wounded more than 100 just outside the provincial government headquarters. Ramadi is 100 km west of Baghdad. — Reuters
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