A powerful car bomb killed at least 47 people near a Baghdad police station Tuesday morning, bringing mass casualties to the Iraqi capital for the second time in three days. The day's toll climbed to at least 59 with an ambush on a police van in Baqouba, north of Baghdad. Combined, the incidents showed the insurgents' determination to wreck U.S. efforts to build a strong Iraqi security service. In addition, the U.S. military said Tuesday that three American soldiers had been killed and eight wounded in separate attacks in Iraq in the previous 24 hours.
The car bombing in Baghdad was the worst single attack there in six months, and the blast's deadly power was evident in the debris. A piece of bloody fabric was snagged on barbed wire, and a pile of shoes was stacked nearby, some apparently torn off victims by the force of the explosion. Branches on two nearby trees were broken, and the pavement bore a crater a few feet deep. Nearby, the twisted and blackened wreckage of one car lay on the ground, and several other vehicles were charred in the blast. One car's hood was wrenched back; another vehicle was still smoking. An acrid stench hung in the air. The 47 dead included would-be police recruits and civilians. At least 114 people were wounded, Health Ministry spokesman Saad Al-Amili said.
The bombing came just two days after a series of attacks spiraled into violence that killed roughly 60 people Sunday across Iraq, testimony to the insurgency's ability to mete out repeated blows to security. Tuesday's attacks were the latest on an expanding list of strikes on police targets, following others this year in Mosul, Kirkuk, Basra and elsewhere, including Baghdad. The building of a new police force is a crucial part of the U.S.-led coalition's effort to hand over greater responsibility for security to Iraqis. |