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Suicide car bomb kills 44 in Bagdad
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-02-11 17:26
A suicide car bomb exploded at an Iraqi army recruitment center in Baghdad on
Wednesday, killing 44 people and taking the 24-hour death toll in attacks
against Iraqis working with the US occupation close to 100.
"It was a suicide attack by a single male," US Colonel Ralph Baker said at
the scene. Most of the victims were newly recruited soldiers reporting for duty.
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| A U.S. military vehicle in Baghdad shortly
after an explosion near an Iraqi army recruiting center Wednesday.
[APTV] | "It was aimed strictly at Iraqis," Baker
said, adding the car was laden with 300-500 pounds of plastic explosives mixed
with artillery shells to maximize the "kill effect."
Major John Frisbie put the death toll at least 36, including the bomber, with
15 more wounded, but hospitals later said they had received 44 dead and 35
wounded.
Around 50 people were killed on Tuesday in a similar attack on Iraqis outside
a police station south of Baghdad.
The police force and new army are central to Washington's plan to hand over
power to Iraqis by June 30.
The U.S. military said Wednesday's attack occurred at around 7:40 a.m. (0440
GMT) when a car drove into the new Iraqi army facility in central Baghdad and
exploded.
"We were standing in line waiting to start our shift in the new army and we
saw a white car drive by us and then blow up. Many died. There were about 400
people in line," said Ghassan Samir, one of four wounded at Yarmuk hospital.
US troops cordoned off the area known as Muthana Airport, a small air
facility abandoned for decades but recently used by the new Iraqi army. Heavy
rain and wind buffeted emergency workers, investigators and soldiers as they did
the grim work of cleaning up and documenting the explosion.
"I was driving and just 10 meters in front of me, a car was driving slowly,
suddenly he exploded...I hit a tree," said Mohammad Jassim, as he dabbed at
small cuts on his head with a blood-dappled rag.
The attacks followed a pattern of targeting Iraqis seen as collaborating with
the U.S. occupation. Twin suicide bombings in northern Iraq against two Kurdish
parties allied with the United States killed more than 100 people on February 1.
Tuesday's suicide car bomb exploded among civilians queuing outside a police
station in the town of Iskandariya, 25 miles south of the capital, to apply for
jobs. At least 75 people were wounded and the police station and an adjacent
court were badly damaged.
Iraqi officials say 300 policemen -- who have been regular targets of suicide
bombings -- have been killed by insurgents. The U.S.-trained force is a pillar
of U.S. plans to put Iraqis in charge of security before a transfer of
sovereignty.
"If the Iraqis don't join the police and army, that means we are saying to
the Americans: 'Stay here forever'," Haitham Imad, a 29-year-old army recruit
who survived Wednesday's blast, said.
IMPOSSIBLE TO DEFEND
"It's impossible to defend in every location against every conceivable kind
of attack at every time of the day or night," Defense Secretary Ronald Rumsfeld
told reporters in Washington after Tuesday's blast.
At the same briefing, Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the
military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was optimistic about security despite
the attack.
"We continue to be optimistic about the situation on the ground in Iraq."
There has been "a lot of success," Myers said, in bringing stability and
security to Iraq ahead of the June 30 target date for handing over power to an
Iraqi government.
Rumsfeld said between 150,000 and 210,000 Iraqis were working in the security
forces, and were getting better at it all the time.
"That does not mean that there will not be people that are killed. I mean,
look at any city on the face of the earth. Everyone's against homicide. And yet
in every...major city on the face of the earth, homicides occur every week.
Hundreds occur every year in every city.
"Now, why if we have all those policemen, why if we have everyone against
homicides, do they still occur? The answer is because human beings are human
beings."
The bombings came after U.S. officials in Iraq said an Islamic militant with
links to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network was plotting to ignite a civil war
to undermine efforts to hand over power to Iraqis.
But Myers said on Tuesday the letter's authenticity was still being
evaluated. "I haven't read it. I don't know if it's authentic. People who've
read it think it is," Rumsfeld added.
US troops said on Monday they had seized a computer disk containing a letter
from Abu Musab Zarqawi, linked by the United States to Ansar al-Islam, outlining
plans to destabilize Iraq.
The United States says the group, which operates in northern Iraq, is
affiliated to al Qaeda.
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