Nine dead in car bomb blast
A car bomb exploded today outside a police station in Iraq’s third largest city, Mosul, killing at least nine people and injuring 45, witnesses and hospital staff said.
Witnesses saw severed limbs and decapitated bodies in the bloodied street in front of the police station. Windows of buildings were shattered and plumes of smoke could be seen in the area.
Staff at the Republican Hospital in Mosul said nine people including civilians and policemen were killed and 45 others were injured.
Today was a pay day and the police station was crowded with staff at the time of the mid-morning attack, said police Lt. Mohammed Fadil.
A US military spokesman said: “We are aware of a report of an IED (improvised explosive device) or a car bomb that exploded near the Mosul police station this morning.” He said he had no other details.
Al-Jazeera television network said the pieces of the car apparently carrying the bomb were found 300 yards away. At least five nearby cars were damaged.
It said no American troops were nearby at the time of the blast.
Some witnesses said it appeared that a car drove through a security barricade in front of the police station before exploding outside the building. This could not be independently confirmed.
One policeman said the blast was so powerful that there were casualties not only on the street but also inside the building.
The police station is next to the University of Mosul campus. Mosul is about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
The attack happened the day before the start of the four-day Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice. The feast, a major Muslim holiday, commemorates the Quranic account of God allowing the patriarch Abraham to sacrifice a sheep instead of his son Ismail. The Old Testament account says another son, Isaac, was spared.
Police stations have been the frequent targets of insurgents fighting US troops and their Iraqi allies since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. Many of the attacks have been carried out through car bombings and roadside bombs that have killed scores of civilians.
In the deadliest insurgent attack since the capture of Saddam on December 13, a suicide car bombing at the gates of the US-led coalition headquarters in Baghdad left at least 31 people dead and more than 120 injured.
Also today, a bomb exploded under a senior police officer’s car parked in front of his house in Baghdad, slightly injuring five children in the street.
