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Iraq
Suicide bomber kills 28 at Iraqi police base
2007-10-29
Looks like AQI is making a concerted effort to retake/hold some kind of base in Baquba. This is just one of a series of actions in the past few days in Diyala - but I haven't seen anything of substance anywhere else.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber on a bicycle killed 28 Iraqi policemen doing their morning exercises at their base north of Baghdad on Monday, police said, in one of the deadliest strikes on security forces in months.

The bomber entered the base in the volatile Diyala province and blew himself up amidst members of a rapid reaction force, said Major-General Ghanim al-Quraishi, the Diyala police chief.
How did he get access? I smell a rat ...
A shopkeeper whose store is close to the base told Reuters he had seen a man riding a bicycle slip through a gap in the concrete wall surrounding the compound and heard a huge blast seconds later that threw a cloud of dust into the air. "I saw many bodies covered in blood. Some were dying, some had arms and legs blown off," said store-owner Ali Shahine.

At least 20 people were wounded in the attack, including a woman and a child, police said.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the Baquba bombing, but it bore the hallmarks of al Qaeda, which has often used suicide bombers in attacks on Iraqi security forces to devastating effect.

The base is in the city of Baquba, capital of Diyala province, a religiously and ethnically mixed region where al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab insurgent groups as well as Shi'ite Muslim militias operate.
Posted by:Glenmore

#2  Actually, I should have added that the inshallah types are known here as buck passers, as in "it's somebody else's problem" - even when it's a problem with life-threatening possibilities.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2007-10-29 13:22  

#1  A shopkeeper whose store is close to the base told Reuters he had seen a man riding a bicycle slip through a gap in the concrete wall surrounding the compound and heard a huge blast seconds later that threw a cloud of dust into the air.

As usual, the inshallah (if Allah wills it) types among the exercising cops decided that perimeter security wasn't a problem. They all paid the price for their inattention to detail.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2007-10-29 13:20  

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