Five killed in Iraq suicide blast; bodies found in Baghdad
A suicide bomber attacked a police department in Fallujah today, killing five Iraqis.
Police also found the bodies of 14 Iraqi men in Baghdad who apparently were the latest victims of a wave of sectarian violence involving death squads that kidnap civilians, torture them in captivity and dump their bodies on city streets.
In Fallujah, the police department was being used as a recruitment centre for new police officers when the suicide attack occurred, said police 1st Lt. Omar Ahmed. Three of the fatalities were applying for jobs and two were policemen, he said.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the suicide bomber had targeted a line of recruits standing outside the building or entered it, Ahmed said.
Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, is located in Anbar Province, where many of Iraq’s Sunni-led insurgent groups are based. Some of the worst terrorist attacks and battles between insurgents and US forces in Iraq occur in Anbar province.
The 14 bodies, discovered near Baghdad’s main amusement park, were men in their 20s and 30s, who had been handcuffed, tied up and shot in the head, said police 1st Lt. Thaeir Mahmoud.
Elsewhere, a mortar round was fired at Camp Echo, a military camp in southern Iraq where Polish forces are based, said Iraqi army Capt. Ali Hakim.
No casualties were immediately reported, but the mortar appeared to explode inside the camp and it was immediately sealed off by Polish forces, Hakim said.
Poland, a US ally, has about 900 troops in Iraq.
