9 killed in truck bomb blast in Baghdad
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-19 17:10

A fuel truck sped toward a police station in southwest Baghdad and exploded as policemen waited for their assignments early Monday, killing at least nine people and wounding 57, Iraqi officials and witnesses said.

Iraqi's remove a victim and collect body parts in a box after a suspected car bomb blew up outside a police station in southwestern Baghdad July 19, 2004. The bomb killed at least 10 people, wounded dozens and left a tangled wreckage of burned out cars and destroyed buildings. [Reuters]

The white tanker came to within 500 feet of the two-story, fence-ringed station when it exploded at 8 a.m. local time, also damaging nearby mechanic and electrical workshops, witnesses said. Police are often targeted by insurgents for their association with Iraq's U.S.-backed government.

"We were all standing in a row, listening to our officer as he gave us our assignment for the day," said wounded policeman Mehdi Salah Abed Ali, 32, lying in a bed at al-Yarmuk hospital, a bandage around his leg.

"There were many policemen standing in the square when the tanker exploded," he said.

The tanker's presence in the industrial area didn't raise concerns until it started speeding towards the police station, a worker at a nearby car wash said.

"I was standing with a friend when we saw the tanker speeding in an unnatural way," said Ahmed Nouri, who said the driver was a young man with a light beard.

At least nine people were killed, said Saad al-Alami, from the Iraqi health ministry.

Standing in the morgue at al-Yarmuk, supervisor Ahmed Araybe counted eight bodies, including two policemen and one child. He said four boxes of flesh and a blankets carrying body parts were also brought in.

Also Monday, six cars filled with waving Filipino soldiers left their camp in Hillah, south of Baghdad. Filipino officials wouldn't say if they were headed directly for Kuwait, but had said on Sunday that they would finish withdrawing their small contingent of troops from Iraq by Monday in keeping with the demands of kidnappers holding a Filipino truck driver hostage.

The pullout, engineered to save the life of Angelo dela Cruz, was scheduled to end when the 22 remaining members of the humanitarian contingent were to make an "exit call" on the new Polish commander at their base in Hillah, Philippine Foreign Minister Delia Albert said.

Some allies have sharply criticized the move, saying it would only encourage more kidnappings.

Over the past 15 months, militants have used kidnappings, car bombs, sabotage and other attacks to try to destabilize the country and push out coalition troops.

Militants also fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a fire station in the Baghdad neighborhood of al-Salihiya, the U.S. military said. One person was wounded.

In the restive city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Iraqi police reported the discovery of a local police chief's body at a shopping market. Lt. Col. Nafi al-Kubaisi was kidnapped two days ago, said Capt. Nasir Abdullah, from nearby Heet police station. His body was found Monday morning.

On Sunday, a statement posted on an Islamic Web site said a group close to al-Qaida-linked militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is offering a US$280,000 reward for the killing of Allawi. The statement by the group Khalid bin Al Walid Brigade called Allawi an "American stooge" and said that its assassins were ordered to kill the prime minister and other Iraqi leaders.

Also Sunday, a U.S. airstrike authorized by Allawi hit purported trenches and fighting positions in Fallujah used by al-Qaida linked foreign fighters, killing 14 people, officials said.

Word that Iraq's interim leader approved the attack was a clear attempt to show that the Iraqi government has taken full sovereignty from the Americans and has firm control, despite its deep reliance on the 160,000 foreign troops, mainly from United States.

"We worked with the government, the government was fully informed about these matters, agreed with us on the need to take the action, we conducted the action," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said during a news conference here. "We didn't just strike off on our own, a sovereign nation had to agree."

Since the U.S. Marines pulled back from Fallujah — a focal point of resistance to the U.S. occupation — after besieging the city for three weeks in April, the U.S. military has been limited to using missiles attacks and airstrikes to hit potential targets there.

The nature of Sunday's target, like those hit in previous attacks, was in dispute.

The U.S. military said it had destroyed trench lines and fighting positions used by fighters loyal to al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant blamed for masterminding car bombings and other attacks in Iraq. The military said 25 al-Zarqawi fighters had been at the site just moments before.

Fallujah Mayor Mahmoud Ibrahim al-Jirisi said the attack hit a site for civilians supporting the Fallujah Brigade, a militia of local residents that took responsibility for security in the city when the Marines left.

"There are no Arabs or foreigners with them," he told the pan-Arab television station Al-Jazeera.

The attack, the sixth U.S. strike on the city in roughly a month, killed 14 people and injured three, according to Saad al-Amili, a Health Ministry official.

After a July 5 airstrike, Allawi, who has promised strong security cooperation with the Americans, issued an unprecedented statement saying his government had provided intelligence for the strike.

After this attack, he went far further, saying that he had authorized the strike.

"The multinational force asked Prime Minister Allawi for permission to launch strikes on some specific places where some terrorists were hiding," an official in Allawi's office said Sunday on condition of anonymity. "Allawi gave his permission,"

Since the U.S. occupation government handed over sovereignty to the interim government June 28, officials from both nations have emphasized that Iraq was now a sovereign nation able to make its own decisions, despite the huge U.S. troop presence and the massive, U.S.-financed reconstruction programs.

Meanwhile, Allawi issued a decree Sunday reopening a controversial newspaper that had been closed by U.S. officials in March, sparking months of fighting between U.S. forces and fighters loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The weekly Al-Hawza was the mouthpiece of al-Sadr's "Sadrist" movement, routinely carrying his fiery sermons on its front page along with articles sharply critical of the U.S.-led occupation.

Allawi, himself a Shiite, ordered the paper reopened in an effort to show his "absolute belief in the freedom of the press," his office said in a statement. The decree appeared designed to broaden Allawi's base of support as his government struggles for legitimacy.

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