- BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide
car bomb killed 47 people at an army recruitment center in Baghdad Wednesday,
taking the death toll to about 100 in two attacks on Iraqis working with
the U.S. occupation forces within 24 hours.
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- "It was aimed strictly at Iraqis," U.S. Colonel
Ralph Baker told Reuters at the scene. About 300-500 pounds of plastic
explosives mixed with artillery shells had maximized the "kill effect,"
he added.
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- Medical staff said hospitals had taken in 44 dead and
55 wounded, of whom at least three later died of their wounds.
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- Some 53 people were killed Tuesday in a similar attack
on Iraqis lining up for jobs at a police station.
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- The police and new army are central to Washington's plan
to hand over power to Iraqis by June 30. Most of Wednesday's victims were
newly recruited soldiers reporting for duty.
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- "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 the wounded.
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- SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD
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- Distraught relatives tried to identify loved ones at
the scene, peeling back bloody sheets and bodybags, covering mouths and
noses as they examined each corpse.
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- As bodies were piled into crude wooden coffins, angry
people accused the Americans of carrying out the attack.
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- "It was the Americans! The Americans! They never
came to oust Saddam, they came for the oil," one man said.
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- Iraqi security forces have frequently complained that
U.S. troops do not provide enough protection.
-
- "The terrorists are trying to deter the people from
joining the new forces. They will succeed it we don't provide enough security
for them. It is the responsibility of the occupation forces under international
law to provide security." said Governing Council member Adnan Pachachi.
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- Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, top U.S. military spokesman
in Iraq (news - web sites), suggested adequate security measures were in
place at the army recruitment facility Wednesday.
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- "There were very few casualties taken by people
behind the protective barriers...it validates the procedures that we put
in place to try and harden up some of these sites," he told a news
conference.
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- The attacks follow 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 Feb. 1.
-
- Tuesday's suicide car bomb exploded among civilians lining
up outside a police station in the town of Iskandariya, 25 miles south
of the capital, to apply for jobs.
-
- Some 620 police have been killed since Saddam Hussein
(news - web sites) was toppled on April 9, according to police officials.
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- "If the Iraqis don't join the police and army, that
means we are saying to the Americans: 'Stay here forever'," said Haitham
Imad, a 29-year-old army recruit.
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- $10 MILLION BOUNTY
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- Shortly after the blast, a United Nations (news - web
sites) team visiting Iraq canceled a meeting with political parties in
the capital, reporters on the scene said. No reason was given.
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- The team, led by Lakhdar Brahimi, is discussing the possibility
of holding elections ahead of the June 30 handover deadline, as demanded
by leaders of the Shi'ite Muslim majority. U.S. plans are for elections
only later.
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- The U.S. Army said Wednesday it had doubled the bounty
to $10 million for Abu Musab Zarqawi, whom U.S. officials say is an Islamic
militant with links to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network
and plotting to ignite civil war in Iraq.
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- A letter purportedly written by Zarqawi urged suicide
bombings against Iraq's Shi'ites in a bid to spark war, according to a
copy released by U.S. forces Wednesday.
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- Brahimi was due to leave by Friday at the latest, a senior
U.S.-led administration official said. The rest of the U.N. team has started
touring provinces. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites)
is expected to make a decision on the elections on February 21.
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- Two bomb attacks against the U.N. presence in Baghdad
last year killed dozens and forced the U.N. to pull out of Iraq.
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- Guerrillas have kept up attacks on foreign forces.
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- In the southern city of Diwaniyah, five Spanish soldiers
on patrol were wounded Wednesday when an explosive device was thrown at
them, Spain's Defense Ministry said.
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- The U.S. military said three American soldiers were wounded
by a roadside bomb near the northern city of Kirkuk.
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- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=57
8&e=1&u=/nm/20040211/ts_nm/iraq_dc
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