Iraq violence kills more than 45 in a day
A suicide truck bomb crashed into a Baghdad police headquarters today, killing seven and wounding at least double that many in a deadly 24 hours that saw more than 45 killings in Iraq, including two American soldiers, authorities said.
The truck bomb attack in the southern Baghdad neighbourhood of Dora came at 7.45am (4am Irish Time) as policemen were coming on duty and the blast razed the building, said Captain Jamil Hussein. He said the number of casualties was expected to rise.
Another policeman was killed when a mortar round landed near a patrol in northern Baghdad, police Lt. Bilal Majid said. Two civilians were also wounded in the attack in the Waziriya neighbourhood, Majid said.
Meanwhile, Mosul police confirmed that tandem bombings killed 21 people near the northern city and wounded 50 others.
A parked car bomb detonated near an Iraqi army base in Sharqat, about 40 miles south of Mosul, last night, and a suicide bomber detonated his explosives as a crowd gathered at the scene of the first bombing, police said.
In another incident, the US military said today that an American soldier was killed by a roadside blast northeast of Baghdad yesterday afternoon.
The soldier died after the vehicle he was travelling in was hit by the bomb, the command said in a statement. The soldier’s name was not released while military officials contact his family.
The news came after the US military yesterday announced the deaths of four soldiers in Iraq. One was killed by a suicide car bombing which also wounded another two soldiers. Another two soldiers were killed on Sunday, one by small arms fire and the other by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.
A fourth soldier, assigned to a medical task force, died on Monday of non-combat related injuries in the capital.
Attacks around Iraq yesterday killed at least 16 Iraqis, including 10 in a rocket attack on a Shiite neighbourhood of Baghdad. At least 55 others were injured in the attacks around the country.
In other violence reported today, the mutilated body of a policeman was turned in to the morgue in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, after being found in the al-Falahiya district east of the city in the morning.
The body of Mahmoud Hassan Mohammed was found blindfolded with his arms and legs cuffed, and he was shot in various place and showed signs of torture, morgue official Mamoun Ajeel Al-Rubai’ey said. The body of an unknown civilian in a similar condition was also turned in to the morgue after being dragged out of the Tigris River about 30 miles south of Baghdad, Al-Rubai’ey said.
Nearly 200 bodies of Iraqis who had been tortured and shot have turned up around Baghdad in the past week, including three found yesterday in an eastern section of the capital.
Most are found bound and blindfolded, apparent victims of sectarian violence. Both Shiite and Sunni lawmakers called yesterday for the defence and interior ministers to take steps to stop the death squads.
Another 12 civilians were injured in a series of three roadside bombings aimed at police patrols this morning in the Hillah area, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, police Lt. Osama Ahmed said. There were no reported police injuries.
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