“Gunmen rob Baghdad jewelry stores, killing 14”

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Gunmen rob Baghdad jewelry stores, killing 14 Posted: 25 May 2010 06:14 PM PDT BAGHDAD — A large group of gunmen, armed with rifles, grenades and bombs, staged an audacious midday robbery Tuesday of a strip of Baghdad jewelry stores within sight of police and army checkpoints, killing at least 14 people, according to officials and a witness. Even as a search for the robbers continued, with the entire neighborhood locked down, Iraqi commanders blamed al-Qaida in Iraq, saying its fighters were desperate to replenish their coffers after a wave of arrests and the killing of the group's leaders. The robbery occurred on the main commercial thoroughfare in the Baya neighborhood — Street No. 20 — just before noon, prompting a firefight with Iraqi police officers and soldiers the gunmen evidently won. At least four police officers were wounded, one gravely. "When they finished robbing the stores, some of the gunmen paraded in the street," brandishing grenade launchers and continuing to fire randomly at shops, said a witness, Ahmed Ameer. Despite initial reports of arrests, it appeared all the robbers escaped in the sport-utility vehicles in which they arrived, though the neighborhood is surrounded by blast walls, with only two entrances blocked by checkpoints The robbers struck at least seven stores that sell gold and serve as money exchanges. At least one bomb exploded on the street. In a city inured to violence, the robbery was particularly brazen. The robbers — as many as 17 — went mostly in pairs, Ameer said, into each shop, killing the shopkeepers and anyone else who happened to be nearby, before smashing glass casings and making off with the jewelry and cash. The attack lasted 20 minutes. The shops themselves did not have guards, although at least some of the employees carried weapons. A joint American and Iraqi raid last month killed the two leaders of the insurgent group that includes al-Qaida, the Islamic State of Iraq. That raid followed what officials described as an intelligence bonanza that came after the capture of the group's commander in Baghdad and dozens of others. Iraqi and American officials have hailed the killings and arrests as a debilitating blow to the insurgency, severing its links to al-Qaida's international network of tactical and financial support. The Islamic State of Iraq has since announced replacements of its top leaders and carried out several bloody attacks that have killed scores, especially in provincial cities outside of the heavily militarized capital.

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