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| Iraq |
| Suicide car bomber kills 15 near Baghdad |
| 2007-02-12 |
| A suicide bomber driving a truck packed with explosives killed at least 15 people on Sunday when he attacked a police station north of Baghdad, police said. Police said they were caught off-guard by the bomber, who ignored the main gate to the station and instead rammed the poorly guarded entrance to an adjoining municipal building. He then drove across open ground and smashed his vehicle into the police station, which is in the town of Dour near Tikrit, 175 km north of Baghdad. A police major in Dour said at least 15 people were killed and 25 wounded. The deputy governor of Salaheddin province, Abdullah Jabara, put the death toll at five killed and seven wounded. Police Lieutenant Abdullah Jassem, stationed at a hospital in Tikrit, said it had received nine bodies and eight wounded. The explosion brought down one side of the building and police said the death toll could rise as they were still searching through the rubble. The dead included policemen and civilians. Local residents who rushed to the scene tried to help with rescue efforts before civil defence squads arrived with shovels to remove the debris and pull out the dead and those injured. US and Iraqi forces later surrounded the area. Bashir Masour, a 46-year-old labourer, said the explosion blew out the windows of his house, about 500 meters (yards) away. “I ran to help and I saw destruction everywhere, along with charred bodies and body parts. Blood was spilled across a big area,” he said. “I carried six people who I thought were still alive but then realised they had died after being torn apart by shrapnel.” Elsewhere in Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded near an intersection, killing two people and wounding three in Mansour, an upscale western neighbourhood that has been the scene of repeated bombings and kidnappings, police said. A US soldier also was killed on Sunday after coming under small-arms fire northeast of Baghdad, the military said, raising the number of American troops who have died this month to 37. In other violence reported by police on Sunday, gunmen shot dead eight men when they ambushed their vehicle northwest of Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city, and raked it with machinegun fire. Police said Saturday’s ambush took place on the main road between the towns of Sinjar and Rabiyaa. The men had been returning home after registering at a border guard recruitment centre in Sinjar. It appeared they were deliberately targeted by gunmen who may have been watching them in Sinjar and then followed them out of town, police said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 death toll at about 60 at noon local time |
| Posted by: mhw 2007-02-12 06:18 |