- Title: IRAQ: CAR BOMB WOUNDS AT LEAST 14 AT RASAFA POLICE HEADQUARTERS ON BAGHDAD
- Date: 2nd September 2003
- Summary: (W3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (SEPTEMBER 2, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF POLICEMEN WITH SMOKE RISING FROM BUILDING IN THE BACKGROUND 0.04 2. VARIOUS , OF U.S. APC ON THE STREET WITH PEOPLE GATHERING/ PAN TO SMOKE 0.12 3. SLV THREE POLICEMEN WITH SMOKE IN BACKGROUND 0.20 4. WIDE OF AMBULANCES ARRIVING, AND U.S TROOPS 0.27 5.
- Embargoed: 17th September 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVAE3FWL2EZ79EYCRJ3UU1LQ16L
- Story Text: Car bomb rips through Iraqi police station wounding
at least 14
A car bomb ripped through a major complex of Iraq's
U.S.-backed police force in Baghdad on Tuesday (September 2)
At least 14 people were wounded according to witnesses.
The explosion damaged the office of the U.S.-appointed
Baghdad police chief, Hassan Ali.
The explosion ripped through the Rasafa police
headquarters in eastern Baghdad at 11:15 a.m. (0715 GMT),
starting a large fire and sending a cloud of black smoke
into the sky.
Seph Walker, a local journalist working for the
Baghdad Bulletin, witnessed the aftermath.
"There' s lots of burnt out cars. There was one car
bomb, the U.S. sergeant said it was strapped to the engine
board of the car. This car bomb set off other explosions
with gasoline tanks of the other cars. But the bomb seems
to have been right next to the office of general Hasan Ali
who's the head of police for Baghdad. His office, for some
reason, is next to the car park area where the car bomb
was. There's a massive gaping hole in the wall. There's a
car like that (showing with his hand in a diagonal
position) up against the wall, been blown in the air. And I
spoke to someone in his office who had blood all over him
and who was injured. He said Hasan Ali is not injured but
that he was there at the time," he said.
Walker says that Hasan Ali, the head of Baghdad police
who was the most likely target, was in the building but was
not killed.
Two fire engines and several ambulances rushed to the
scene of the explosion as U.S. military police cordoned off
the area and a helicopter gunship circled the complex.
Across the street from the building is the police
academy where new recruits are trained under U.S.
supervision.
The injured were taken to the Ibn Al-Nafis Hospital
"It was a very big explosion and very difficult to
define the type of a car, whether a Hyunday or Daewoo ,
shrapnel flew very long distances, and all the cars neaR
the bombed car were completely burned out. Most of the
injuries are not so serious, just one of the colleagues was
severely injured," said Ismail Hussein, a policeman who was
there at the time of attack and was now waiting in hospitaL
to hear about his colleagues.
Nadim Suleyman was injured in the attack.
"It was four police officers and myself standing there,
and all of a sudden all I saw was the glass coming toward
us. Then we were told it was an explosion," he said
describing the attack.
"I don't have any information, I was just evacuated
here," his injured colleague, wearing a plaster above his
right eye, added.
Iraq has seen a series of bomb attacks in the past
few weeks. A car bomb killed a top Shi'ite Muslim cleric
and more than 80 others in the city of Najaf on Friday.
Blasts also hit the U.N. headquarters and the Jordanian
embassy in Baghdad.
Journalists quickly gathered at the scene of Tuesday's
(September 2) attack on the police station.
"We are police, not here to serve any particular
person, here to serve the country. Not to serve the
Americans or any one else," an injured Iraqi policemen told
them, sitting in his car, dismayed that someone would
attack the very people who are trying to provide some kind
of security in the lawless capital.
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