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Baghdad violence leaves at least 52 dead
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-18 09:01
A suicide car bomber slammed into a line of police cars sealing off a Baghdad
neighborhood Friday as American troops rounded up dozens of suspected militants,
capping a day of violence across Iraq that left at least 52 dead.
![A wounded Iraqi policeman is rushed to a hospital following a car bomb explosion near a police station at Rashid street in central Baghdad, September 17, 2004. [Reuters]](xin_5309011802197341542920.jpg)
A wounded
Iraqi policeman is rushed to a hospital following a car bomb explosion
near a police station at Rashid street in central Baghdad, September 17,
2004. [Reuters] |
Among the 63 suspects arrested were Syrians, Sudanese and Egyptians,
officials said. Coalition forces say foreign fighters are playing a major role
in the insurgency.
The car bombing, which killed three people and wounded 23, was the second
this week targeting the capital's beleaguered police forces. The mounting
violence has increased pressure on Iraqis working to restore stability in their
country but seen as collaborators because of their cooperation with U.S. forces.
U.S. forces intercepted another car earlier carrying explosives as it
attempted to break through a Baghdad checkpoint, the military said. When the
vehicle refused to stop, troops opened fire, setting off the explosives. The two
people inside the vehicle were killed and an Iraqi soldier was wounded.
The attacks came after U.S. jets pounded suspected hideouts of an
al-Qaida-linked group in and around the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah in
Anbar province west of Baghadad, killing at least 44 people.
Also Friday, the military said insurgents killed a U.S. Marine on patrol in
Anbar province. It gave no details. As of Thursday, 1,027 members of the U.S.
military have died since the beginning of the Iraq campaign, according to the
Defense Department.
A half-dozen cars were blocking a bridge in central Baghdad when a car rammed
into them and exploded in the middle of the parked cars, police officials said.
"I was thrown outside my car," said a policeman, Ali Jabar, who was being
treated at a hospital for wounds to his face and one hand. He blamed insurgents
waging a 17-month campaign to oust U.S.-led coalition forces.
"By attacking Iraqi police, they think that they will be sent to heaven, but
by God's will, they are now melting in hell," Jabar said.
A wave of bombings, mortar attacks and shootings targeting police and
potential recruits has killed hundreds of people nationwide since the fall of
Baghdad in March 2003, as militants try to thwart efforts to build a strong
Iraqi police force capable of taking over security from American troops. More
than 250 people have been killed across Iraq in the past week alone.
The car exploded in the heart of one of Baghdad's busiest commercial areas, a
short distance away from the storied al-Moutanabi street, whose outdoor book
market attracts large numbers on Fridays. When police fired shots to disperse
the crowds, thousands of shoppers streamed from the area.
"I saw human flesh and blood in the street, then I fled," said Mouayad
Shehab.
The blast left a 6-foot-wide crater and littered the area with debris,
including at least five artillery shells that police said came from the suicide
car. Parts of the car, believed to be an old Chevrolet Malibu, were found more
than a 100 yards away, witnesses said.
The police vehicles had been deployed to help American troops seal off the
area around Haifa Street, where U.S. and Iraqi forces were raiding suspected
insurgent hideouts, sparking a gunbattle.
Along with the 63 arrests, security forces seized rockets, grenades and
machine guns, Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim said. At least 10 people
were wounded in the raids, according to the Health Ministry.
West of Baghdad, hundreds of men dug mass graves to bury the dead from a wave
of American airstrikes that started late Thursday and stretched into Friday in
and around Fallujah. Health Ministry official Saad al-Amili said at least 44
people were killed and 27 wounded in the Fallujah strikes.
The U.S. military said intelligence reports estimated up to 60 militants may
have been killed. American troops have not entered Fallujah since ending a
three-week siege of the city in April, and the claim could not be verified.
Mahmoud Sheil, 50, a tribal sheik in the area, likened the killings from U.S.
airstrikes in Fallujah to the slaughter of civilians under Saddam Hussein's
ousted dictatorship.
"They (the Americans) say that Saddam is the man of mass graves, but they are
the ones responsible for these mass graves," he said.
Blood seeped through the blankets and sheets wrapping the corpses, which were
lowered into the graves in groups of four.
The U.S. military said a first series of strikes targeted a compound in a
village south of Fallujah where up to 90 militants loyal to Jordanian-born
terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were believed to be hold up.
U.S. warplanes later hit a two-story house inside Fallujah that was also
allegedly being used by fighters belonging to Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group.
Militants who survived the strikes in the compound sought refuge in nearby
villages, but U.S. forces said they broke off an offensive to hunt them down to
avoid civilian casualties.
Blood covered the floors of Fallujah General Hospital as doctors struggled to
cope with a flood of casualties, many brought to the hospital in private cars.
Relatives pounded their chests in grief and denounced the United States.
Religious leaders switched on loudspeakers at the Fallujah mosque, calling on
residents to donate blood and chanting: "God is great."
As night fell, a U.S. jet carried out another strike on the city, firing a
missile at a house in the central Dhubat neighborhood that the military said was
an al-Zarqawi hideout. At least three bodies were visible at the scene.
Insurgents have only strengthened their grip on Fallujah since the April
siege ended, regularly mounting attacks against Marine positions and military
convoys on the city's outskirts.
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