Posted on 12-4-2004
36
dead in Baghdad suicide bombing
Iraqis seeking work with US forces today suffered a second
devastating suicide bombing attack in as many days when an explosives-packed
car rammed into an army recruitment centre in Baghdad.
At least 36 people died in the attack, but Iraq's deputy interior
minister, Ahmed Ibrahim, said that the final toll could be as
high as 47, with 50 people injured.
Yesterday, a truck bombing of police recruits in Iskandariya,
a small town 30 miles south of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, killed
at least 50 people.
US officials have warned of a possible increase in attacks,
particularly against Iraqis, as insurgents try to disrupt the
transfer of sovereignty to a provisional Iraqi government, which
is planned for June 30.
Mr Ibrahim, speaking today, told reporters that "this
crime [will] not deter the people's march toward freedom".
The Baghdad army recruitment centre, about a mile from the
Coalition Provisional Authority's high security compound, was
hit by the blast at 7.25am local time (0425 GMT) as around 300
Iraqis gathered outside its locked gates, waiting for it to
open.
Some of the men were looking to join the military, with others
waiting to leave for a training camp in Jordan.
Ghasan Sameer, 32, an officer in the new Iraqi army, told the
Associated Press from his hospital bed: "I saw a white
Oldsmobile slowly approaching.
"It ran over some people and exploded. I was blown up
in the air and saw fire and body parts all around me."
His legs were broken, and he also suffered shrapnel wounds.
Amer Hussein, 25, his body heavily burned, moaned in pain as
attendants wrapped his right leg in cotton gauze. Mr Hussein's
left leg had been severed at the ankle, and a pool of blood
had formed under his bed.
The US military estimated that the bomb contained between 135
and 225 kilos of explosives.
The blast comes at a time when a team of UN diplomats is in
Iraq to determine whether it is practical and safe enough to
hold direct elections for the new Iraqi government, which it
is proposed will take power in July.
Although attacks on the US military have decreased over recent
weeks, there has been a string of bombings targeting Iraqis,
particularly those working with the occupying US forces.
"This could be a new trend of terrorist activity - it
could be part of the ongoing pattern of intimidation we've seen
of late," Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the US military's
deputy operations chief in Baghdad, said.
"We have stated, numerous times, that in the lead-up to
governance, there could be an upsurge in the violence."
Colonel Ralph Baker, of the 1st Armoured Division, said that
there was no immediate indication of who was behind the attack.
However, he added that it resembled "the operating technique"
of al-Qaida or Ansar al-Islam. He said it would not stop progress
towards creating Iraqi security forces.
"A lot of young men in this country want to be part of
the solution," he told CNN. "I don't think that it
will have a tremendous effect on recruiting."
US forces have been preparing the Iraqi police and military
for taking a larger role in tackling the anti-US insurgency.
The Baghdad bombing was the latest in a series of suicide attacks
on Iraqis. Ten days ago, a double suicide bombing claimed the
lives of more than 100 Iraqis in the Kurdish town of Irbil.
Days earlier, around 25 Iraqis were killed by a suicide car
bomb as they queued for work at the gates of the US headquarters
in Baghdad.
Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, yesterday said that
the Iskandariya police station attack was in line with plans
outlined in a letter sent from an anti-US fighter to al-Qaida's
leadership.
The letter asked for help in launching attacks against the
Shia Muslims to undermine the future Iraqi government.
The goal of the attacks would be to foment civil war. The letter's
purported author Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Palestinian-Jordanian
suspected of al-Qaida links and believed to be at large in Iraq.
The author boasted that he had organised 25 suicide attacks.
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