Explosion against a police center in Baghdad: 120 killed, wounded, mostly civilians
A truck loaded with some 225 kg of explosives went off yesterday in front a police center, to the south of Baghdad, where scores were in line to apply for jobs and this resulted in killing or wounding 120 persons.
This truck is number 8 to be blown up in Iraq this year, and comes following a warning by American officials that the resistance will intensify their attacks against the Iraqis who collaborate with the occupation authorities, especially with the approaching of June 30 the date when sovereignty will be transferred to a provisional Iraqi government.
American officials in Baghdad said that 35 persons were killed and 75 wounded, but also added that the figures might be less as the Iraqi authorities is the side which makes the investigations.
The Iraqi ministry of the interior said that killed persons are between 4 to 50 while the wounded are over 100 including four police men. However, medical sources said that this operation resulted in killing 55 persons and wounding other 67.
Local police commander, col. Abdul Rahim Saleh, said that the attack was a suicide operation carried out by a driver who detonated a red Toyota pick up truck while it was running near a police center in Alexandria. He added " we found its engine ( the truck). It was a suicide cowardly act." Saleh said that most of the victims are Iraqi civilians. The American col. Dan William said that none of the American soldiers were hit nor any of the occupation forces, in the explosion.
However, the Alexandria explosion converted the the police center in the area which is inhabited by a Shiite majority, and 45 Km to the south of Baghdad, into ruins. Remains of bodies scattered in the place. Witnesses said the rescue men found no one undamaged body.
Just few hours following the explosion, the Iraqi security forces opened fire to disperse an angry crowd which attacked the devastated police center after hearing rumors that the explosion was a result of an American missile.
Ibrahim said that that four of his police officers were killed in an explosion which took place when their car was running in Baghdad. He said that some 604 police members were killed in attacks or during operations against criminals since the reform of the Iraqi police following the collapse of Saddam regime.
In al-Musil, Maj. Gen. Abdul Azel Kazem, the chairman of the media office in the city police said that "one policeman was killed and two others wounded when unidentified persons from two cars opened fire at a small truck belonging to the police in Souma quarters." The source said that al-Yarmouk quarters policeman in al-Musil, Maj. Gen Hussein, Ali was killed at the hands of unidentified persons who were in a car while he was at his house and the attackers were able to escape.
On Monday, 10 gunmen were killed in a fire exchange while preparing to implant an ambush in al-Maqdadeyah to the north of Baghdad.
Three persons were injured on Monday in an operation carried out by a suicider in front of one chieftain of Maqrab tribe near the occupation headquarters in al-Ramadi. Witnesses said that the attack "took place at the courtyard of the house of Sheikh Ameer Abdul Jabbar when one suicider blew himself up when the guards inspected him," noting that the suicider was killed in the operation.
Sheikh Ameer who presides over the council of al-Anbar governorate, to the west of Baghdad, belongs to Abu Ali Suleiman tribe. His brother Majid Abdul Razzaq is al-Daleim Sheikh. A tribe which supports the Americans.
In Baghdad, one American spokesman said that one sensitive building in the operational center of the occupation authorities in Baghdad was closed yesterday following a routine inspection operation.