- Title: IRAQ: CAR BOMB OUTSIDE POLICE STATION KILLS 50 PEOPLE AND WOUNDS DOZENS
- Date: 11th February 2004
- Summary: (W6) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FEBRUARY 10, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE, U.S. ARMY BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT AND DAN SENOR, COALITION SPOKESMAN, WALKING TO PODIUM 0.07 2. (SOUNDITE) (English) MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY BRIG GEN., DEPUTY DIRECTOR COALITION OPERATIONS (ASKED WHETHER THE ATTACK WAS CONNECTED TO ABU MUSAB ZARQAWI) SAYING "Large bomb, ca
- Embargoed: 26th February 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ISKANDARIYA AND BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA5HC5EM165SKHEFJ0RQ71AO6OB
- Story Text: About 50 people were killed and dozens wounded when
a car bomb ripped through a police station south of Baghdad.
A massive car bomb killed about 50 people at a police
station south of Baghdad on Tuesday (February 10, 2004) as
civilians lined up to apply for jobs, in one of the
deadliest attacks on Iraqis working with U.S. occupation
forces.
The bombing, which wounded at least 75 others, came
after U.S. officials said an Islamic militant with links to
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network was plotting to ignite a
civil war in Iraq to undermine efforts to hand over power
to Iraqis.
Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt said the bomb contained
about 500 pounds (225 kilos) of explosives.
He told a news conference it was not clear whether it
was a suicide bomb, but that it shared characteristics of
other major attacks which U.S. officials say are probably
carried out by foreign groups rather than Iraqi insurgents.
"Large bomb, car bomb -- we don't know at this point
whether it was a suicide bomber or whether a person escaped
from that and detonated it. A large numbers of civilians
(were killed) outside the police station that was heavily
hardened and as a result there were very few police
casualties," Kimmitt said.
The attacks followed 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 February 1.
U.S. troops said on Monday they had seized a computer
disc containing a letter from Abu Musab Zarqawi, who
Washington links to Ansar al-Islam, outlining plans to
destabilise Iraq.
The United States says the group, which operates in
northern Iraq, is affiliated to al Qaeda.
Dan Senor, chief spokesman for Iraq's U.S. governor
Paul Bremer responded to whether Tuesday's car bommb attack
could be connnected to Zarqawi.
"While it's premature to speculate, the Zarqawi memo
makes it clear that he and al Qaeda forces feel threatened
by the growing Iraqi security services and by their
increasing effectiveness and by the process by which we
hand over sovereignty to the Iraqi people. And certainly
incidents like the today are consistent with the sort of
attacks one would make against institutions like the Iraqi
police and the Iraqi Civil Defence Corps (ICDC) and Iraqi
political leaders by which these terrorists feel
threatened," he told a news conference.
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the
letter showed al Qaeda was under pressure but had not given
up.
U.S. forces in Iraq have long suspected al Qaeda was
playing a role in the insurgency, particularly attacks on
civilian targets in Iraq.
Local officials at the bomb scene on Tuesday said a car
was parked outside the police station and court house. Both
buildings were seriously damaged.
A Reuters reporter said he had counted at least 20
bodies on the ground outside the hospital. Inside, staff
frantically tried to mop up pools of blood and tend to the
dozens of wounded men that arrived.
The hospital's director said he believed 49 people
died. The U.S. military confirmed at least 35 deaths,
mostly civilian, and said 75 people had been wounded.
Earlier on Tuesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up
outside the house of Amer Suleiman, chief of the al-Duleimi
tribe in the area and head of the local U.S.-appointed
authority in the restive town of Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles)
west of the capital, wounding four bodyguards.
Iraqi officials say 300 policemen, who have been
regular targets of suicide bombings, have been killed by
insurgents. The U.S.-trained force is a pillar of U.S.
plans to put Iraqis in charge of security before a June 30
transfer of sovereignty.
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