Number of persons killed Karkouk increased, Rumsfeld arrives in Baghdad
The number of persons killed in a booby trapped car in a suicide operation that targeted a police center in Karkouk city in north Iraq increased to 10 persons in addition to scores of wounds.
Police officials and medical sources said that one attacker riding a booby trapped car carried out the attack in the Kurdish Rahim Aut quarters in Karkouk and the explosion resulted in killing 10 persons, mostly Iraqi policemen and wounding other 45 including 10 in a critical condition.
The force of the explosion resulted in complete destruction of the police center and damaging several adjoining buildings.
The explosion comes at a time when the Kurds of Iraq are pressing to get greatest amount of self rule of a confederation in their areas to the northern part of the country before the US brings back authority to Iraq on June 30.
This is, however, the most recent in the blowing up operations by booby trapped and suicide cars against the Iraqi police who are considered by the fighters as hirelings for the American occupation forces. It is also considered the third explosion to target the Kurds in the north since the end of January this year.
At the same level, witnesses say that a fire erupted in a strategic Iraqi oil pipeline between the north and the south after the explosion.
The attack coincided with the arrival of the US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld to Baghdad yesterday morning in an undisclosed visit aiming at evaluating the security situation in the country.
This is the fourth visit to be carried out by Rumsfeld since the invasion led by the US against Iraq in 2003.
The American administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer, received Rumsfeld at Baghdad's airport before he headed for an American military base in the capital, Baghdad.
The US defense secretary expressed upon his arrival in Baghdad his country's concern over what he described attempts of al-Qaida organization members who sneaked into the lines of resistance to plant disputes between the Shiite, Sunni and Kurds in Iraq. Rumsfeld stressed in his comments on the attack which targeted the headquarters of Karkouk police yesterday that there is a clear activity for al-Qaida in Iraq.
Some 200,000 Iraqis are serving in the numerous security systems established by the American forces in Iraq following the collapse of Baghdad 10 months before, despite the strong attacks which claimed the life of 300 Iraqi policemen in recent weeks.
In a statement in Kuwait where he had started his tour on Sunday, Rumsfeld vowed that democracy will be deeply rooted in Iraq despite the state of security, but he refrained from predicting the date when the elections will be made following handing over the authority to the Iraqis due on June 30th.