Bomb Blast Incident in Southern Baghdad Area

 

First Part Reading Comprehension 

On 25th of June, 2011 at about 1530 hrs an unknown phone caller informed to ISF (International Stabilization Force) station in Baghdad Headquarters that there was a bomb blast incident happened in Southern Baghdad area. The duty officer of the station was 1st lieutenant Hans Muller a German national. After receiving the information he informed the matter to the station commander Lt. Colonel Roser Muller the same nationality. He directed the duty officer to send a patrol team immediately. After five minutes the duty officer dispatched a patrol team consisting of ten NATO military personnel headed by Major Ramos a German national excluding the military driver with an APC.

The team reached the scene after forty nine minutes of their departure from the station. It is only twenty five minutes way but due to heavy traffic jam and off road they need that time. As the team reached the scene, they cordon the area with red tape and called for five ambulances from the ISF headquarters through their military radio. They picked the injured persons and send them at ISF military hospital, Baghdad. They picked 93 persons including one-third women and children. At about 2020 hrs while they were coming back to their station one third ways they became attacked by some sniper.

The sniper fired to them by using automatic rifle, light machine gun and also thrown some grenades. NATO personnel also backed fired to the sniper by using APC’s machine gun. After fighting fifteen minutes the sniper also lunched a rocket to their APC and it damage of the right front side. Two NATO soldiers died in spot and three were injured. The team leader also sent this message to their station. Two NATO helicopters also come there to protect them and fired three missiles to the sniper’s building at GR: 256-459. The building fully damaged and got fired. Later NATO ground forces searched the area and see five dead bodies of the snipers. There were two women there.

The injured NATO personnel also sent to NATO military hospital in Baghdad through helicopter. After that the team backed to their station at 2220 hrs and made a report of those two incidents.

One eye witness informed to the team that a suicide attacker blew up a bomb-filled car at a police station south of Baghdad, killing 51 people including 21 police men on the same day, as Iraqi forces braced for Al-Qaeda revenge attacks after Osama bin Laden’s death. The attack, which also wounded at least 51 policemen, was the worst in Iraq in more than a month, and pushed security chiefs to install new checkpoints, tighten access to key roads and restrict movement between provinces.

The bombing left a two meter crater and badly damaged the police station in the center of the mainly Shiite sector area in Baghdad town, in addition to several nearby houses and shops, just days after US Special Forces killed bin Laden at Attobabad in Pakistan. “The suicide bomber took advantage of the police station’s guards changing shift to attack,” said Haider al Zazour, head of the Baghdad provincial council security committee. “He managed to drive through the main gate and blew up his vehicle four meters inside the station’s perimeter.”

On the following day the chief of ISF hospital put the toll from yesterday’s suicide bombing at 51 dead and 93 wounded, of them 21 policemen. Of the wounded, 30 were in serious condition, the doctor Alim al-Ali said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The death toll was confirmed by a list of the fatalities posted inside the hospital. Later at midnight eight people died in the hospital that was serious injured including three policemen.

Iraqi Taliban leader Mustafa Omar claimed from an anonymous place that, they were responsible for those two attacked. The following day at about 0800 hrs of the incident local police discovered two dead bodies of two policemen from 1st the scene and one more body from the second scene.

 

Questions

1. How many police personnel were died in the bomb blast incident?

2. Who was the ISF patrol team leader and when they attacked by the sniper?

3. How many women and children were wounded in both attacks?

4. When the duty officer of ISF dispatch the patrol team to the scene and when they reached there?

5. Where the bomb blast incident happened and how many NATO personnel attend at the scene?

6. Who was Haider al Zazour?

7. When police discovered another two police person dead body?

8. Who was the chief of ISF hospital and how many NATO personnel died in this incident?

9. How many old was Mustafa Omar and what was the nationality of the NATO duty officer?

10. Where the wounded people were sent?