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Phony policeman ignites bomb in Baghdad
A man dressed as a policeman blew himself up Saturday at the heavily guarded Baghdad headquarters of a feared commando unit, killing at least three people, officials said. Witnesses said at least five died, not including the bomber.
Three other commandos were killed in an attack on their convoy in western Baghdad's Mansour area, police said. Separately, at least 11 Iraqi construction workers were killed and three wounded when gunmen opened fire on their minibus in Diyara, 30 miles south of Baghdad. The men worked on projects on Iraq and American bases, police said. Two U.S. Marines were killed Friday in a roadside bomb attack near the volatile Anbar province town of Saqlawiyah, west of Fallujah, the military said Saturday. At least 1,693 U.S. military members have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The suicide bombing targeted the headquarters of the Wolf Brigade, a commando force dominated by Shiite Muslims. Sunni Arab leaders have accused the force of kidnapping and killing members of Iraq's minority Sunni community, including clerics. Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said the attacker was a former Wolf Brigade member who was targeting the force's commander, Brig. Mohammed al-Quraishi. "Today's attack does not constitute an infiltration of the police forces," Jabr said during a press conference. "The only thing left of the bomber was his head and feet." Police are hunting two of his former colleagues, the minister added. Jabr said three people were killed. But a witness to the attack, Maj. Falah al-Mahamdawi, said five people were killed and seven wounded. It was unclear how the attacker managed to elude detection at the compound in eastern Baghdad's Bab Sharqi neighborhood. The police uniform he was wearing may have enabled him to avoid stringent checks for explosives. People who want to enter the compound, which also houses the Interior Ministry, must first go through metal detectors, be frisked by policemen and checked by sniffer dogs. Al-Mahamdawi, the police officer, said the attacker was disguised as a policeman and detonated explosives during a roll call for recently graduates. It was unclear if the bomber was standing among the graduates or was nearby. The attack may have been motivated by the Sunni struggle for a role in the country's political process. Sunnis, a minority favored by Saddam Hussein, resent the rise to power of the majority Shiite community and the U.S.-allied Kurds. This is believed to be a major factor in the continuing insurgency in Iraq that has killed more than 900 people since the new Shiite-led government was announced April 28. In another attack in Baghdad, 10 people were killed late Friday when a car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in Baghdad, Dr. Ali Khazim of Nour Hospital said Saturday. Two children were among the dead, while another 28 were wounded. Iraqi police also raided an auto mechanic's workshop in the southeastern New Baghdad suburb and captured five men suspected of rigging car bombs, Lt. Col. Ahmed Abood said. It was unclear in which attacks the men were allegedly involved. Two Oil Ministry employees were shot dead early Saturday in Baghdad's southern Dora district, police official Rasol Salih said. A third man was critically wounded and taken to hospital. The bodies were found in a canal under a footbridge and one of the slain men was seen handcuffed and wearing civilian clothes, according to footage taken by Associated Press Television News. A bomb exploded in a cemetery in the southern city of Najaf early Saturday, killing two Iraqis, including and 8-year-old girl and wounding three others from the same family as they were visiting the graves of relatives, said Capt. Hadi al-Najim. Al-Najim said the bomb had been planted in the cemetery during August clashes between U.S. forces and supporters of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. soldiers shot dead two Iraqis and wounded two others in Baghdad on Saturday when their car came too close to an American armored patrol, military spokesman Lt. Jamie Davis said. Iraqi police Maj. Moussa Abdul-Karim said the victims were Iraqi security guards driving to work in northern Baghdad's Shula neighborhood at about 6:30 a.m. and mistakenly shot by American soldiers. He did not say which company they worked for. Davis said the Iraqis were driving slowly in front of a lead vehicle in an American convoy. An American soldier in the lead vehicle fired a warning shot to make the Iraqi vehicle move away, but its occupants returned fire on the convoy and sparked a gun battle, Davis said. "The (U.S.) patrol returned fire, killing two occupants, wounding two more and setting their car on fire," Davis said, adding the American soldiers left the scene without stopping. Another American patrol returned shortly after and found "multiple AK-47s" inside the vehicle and took the wounded men to a hospital, Davis added. U.S. military vehicle patrols are on high alert when driving on streets in
Baghdad and throughout the country because they fear militants may attack their
convoys with car bombs or roadside explosive devices. |
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