Civilian injured by bomb blast near Makhmour

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: A civilian was injured in a bomb explosion on Friday in southwestern Arbil, an Iraqi army source said. “An explosive device went off this morning on the road between Makhmour district and Qayara region near Sultan Oula village in west of Makhmour while a taxi was passing, seriously injuring the driver,” the source told IraqiNews.com. “Security forces waged a crackdown operation in the region, where they arrested two suspected gunmen,” he added. Makhmour is one of the areas subject to administrative dispute between the provinces of Arbil and Mosul. Arbil, the capital city of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region, lies 349 km northeast of Baghdad. Arbil, also written Erbil or Irbil, is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited in the world and is one of the largest cities in Iraq. The city lies eighty kilometers (fifty miles) east of Mosul. In 2005, its estimated population was 990,000 inhabitants. The city is the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region and the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG). It hosts the headquarters of the Kurdistan region ministers and parliament. Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, only isolated, sporadic violence has hit Arbil, unlike many other areas of Iraq. Parallel bomb attacks against the Eid celebrations arranged by the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdistan RegionG President Massoud Barazani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) killed 109 people on February 1, 2004. Responsibility was claimed by the Islamist group Ansar al-Sunnah, and stated to be in solidarity with the Kurdish Islamist faction Ansar al-Islam. Another bombing on May 4, 2005 killed 60 civilians. Despite these bombings the population generally feels safe. SH (S) 1