|
Car bomb in Baghdad kills seven
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-04 21:19 In the second major assault on
Baghdad's police force in two days, two car bombs exploded next to an Iraqi
police station just outside Baghdad's Green Zone on Saturday, killing seven
people and wounding 59, mostly police. Insurgents killed 16 officers in an
attack the day before.
Iraqi
policemen check on their wounded colleague in Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital
Saturday Dec. 4, 2004. A car bomb attack next to an Iraqi police station
just outside Baghdad's Green Zone on Saturday killed six Iraqi policemen
and wounded 10, officials said. [AP] | The
U.S. military said two car bombs exploded at about 9:30 a.m. near a checkpoint
leading to the heavily fortified area, which houses the offices of Iraq's
interim government and several foreign missions, including the U.S. Embassy.
Only one blast was heard at the time, suggesting the bombs may have been timed
to detonate simultaneously.
Bursts of automatic fire followed the thunderous detonation, which shook
windows several hundred yards away in buildings on the opposite side of the
Tigris River from where the attack occurred.
Health officials said the bodies of seven people killed by the blast and 59
wounded were brought to two Baghdad hospitals. Officials said most of the
victims were police officers, but the identities of all the dead were not yet
known.
The interim government's security forces are regular targets for insurgents,
who have been ramping up attacks ahead of scheduled Jan. 30 elections. Hundreds
of police officers and members of the Iraqi National Guard have been killed in
strikes by insurgents, who regard the police as collaborators with foreign
occupiers.
The latest attacks, however, were particularly audacious and sent a clear
message that the insurgents can strike wherever they choose. Friday's attack
came on the airport road, which, while extremely dangerous, is frequently
patrolled by U.S. troops. And the police station hit Saturday was just yards
from the seat of American and Iraqi power in the country.
North of Baghdad, a U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded when a
roadside bomb detonated, destroying the truck they were traveling in, U.S.
military spokesman Master Sgt. Robert Powell said.
The attack happened near Ghalabiyah, 6 miles west of Baqouba, a hotbed of the
insurgency.
The killing raised the number of U.S. military members to have died since the
beginning of the war in March 2003 to at least 1,266, according to an Associated
Press count.
Police in the northern city of Samarra also came under attack Saturday.
Mortars were fired at a station after midnight, wounding two officers. Gunmen
injured two policemen in another attack at about 10 a.m., according to police
Maj. Sadoon Ahmed Matroud.
New details emerged about heavy fighting in the last day in Mosul, the
northern Iraqi city that has seen a surge in violence recently, including
several attacks in which insurgents captured and looted several police stations.
The latest clashes were widely reported Friday, but details had been sketchy.
On Saturday, the U.S. military said in a statement that the fighting began when
insurgents attacked four police stations but were repelled.
The statement said about 70 insurgents also tried to ambush a U.S. patrol
with roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. After
regrouping, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an assault on "pockets of resistance"
in Mosul, killing more than two dozen insurgents.
On Friday, 11 carloads of gunmen drove up to the police station in Baghdad's
western Amil district and attacked it with rocket-propelled grenades and
small-arms fire, killing 16 officers. Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's
militant group claimed responsibility for that attack.
Another car bomb attack Friday at a Shiite mosque in the Sunni stronghold of
Azamiyah killed 14 people and wounded 19 gathering for a Friday prayer service.
That attack was followed by insurgents and Iraqi government forces fighting for
about two hours around a nearby police station.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Bob Callahan said Saturday's car bombing in Baghdad
caused no U.S.-led coalition casualties. The blast occurred near "Checkpoint 3,"
close to the Convention Center — a building next to the Green Zone where the
American military and embassy regularly stage meetings — and the nearby
al-Rashid Hotel, which houses diplomats and foreign contractors.
U.S. commanders and Iraq's interim authorities hope to boost security in Iraq
— mainly in Sunni Muslim areas of central and northern Iraq — before the Jan. 30
elections. Sunni politicians have urged the postponement of balloting because of
recent violence.
The visiting NATO commander expressed surprise Friday that Iraq's insurgency
had proven so resilient by comparison with Afghanistan, where he said security
has improved significantly.
"At the beginning I would have projected the opposite, with Iraq coming along
faster," said U.S. Gen. James Jones, the supreme allied commander in Europe.
In Kirkuk, U.S. soldiers killed an Iraqi driver who didn't slow down at a
checkpoint set up following a rocket propelled grenade attack on a liquor store,
Iraqi police and the U.S. military said Saturday.
An investigation has been launched into the killing, which involved soldiers
from the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment.
Elsewhere, Japan's top defense official, Yoshinori Ono, traveled to Iraq to
visit Japanese troops on a humanitarian mission.
Tokyo must soon decide whether to extend its military dispatch to Iraq, but
it is widely expected to approve an extension beyond a Dec. 14 deadline for the
550 Japanese troops based in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah.
The non-combat mission, launched early this year, is Japan's first military
deployment to a combat zone since World War II ended.
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
