Car Bomb Kills 2, Hurts 7 in Kirkuk, Iraq
07/30/2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A car packed with explosives exploded near the U.S. consulate in Kirkuk, killing two Iraqis and wounding seven others, Iraqi police said Sunday.
No Americans were injured in the explosion late Saturday in eastern Kirkuk, said police Col. Burhan Tayeb.
It was the seventh car bombing this month in Kirkuk, where tensions are rising among Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen for control of the area’s vast oil wealth.
In Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned television stations against broadcasting footage that could undermine the country’s stability.
A statement by the prime minister’s office cited news reports that “capitalize on the footage of victims of terrorist attacks.” He called on media outlets to “respect the dignity of human beings and not to fall in the trap set up by terrorist groups who want to petrify the Iraqi people.”
The statement said the government will take legal action against television stations that do not uphold the code of media ethics. The statement did not elaborate, but it fell short of an earlier al-Maliki warning that he will not hesitate to “shut them down if they do not stop inciting sectarianism.”
There has been an increase in biased reporting by Shiite and Sunni television stations that focus on the suffering of their communities - often with little mention of the other.
In August 2004, the government closed the Baghdad news office of Al-Jazeera television, accusing the station of inciting violence. The office is still closed but the station operates in the Kurdish-ruled area of the north.
Earlier this month, in a visit to Kurdistan, al-Maliki refused to answer a question by an Al-Jazeera correspondent and reportedly rebuked Kurdish officials for allowing the network to operate there.
In November 2003, the U.S.-appointed Governing Council banned the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television station from reporting from Baghdad after it aired an audio tape said to be from Saddam Hussein, who was still at large. The station was allowed to resume its work shortly afterward.