Perilous Times
Car bombs target police, kill 53
* From correspondents in Baghdad
* From: AFP
* August 26, 2010 6:14AM
MORE than a dozen apparently coordinated car bombs targeting Iraqi
police and other attacks blamed on al-Qaeda killed 53 people overnight,
just days before the US military ends its combat mission.
The trail of bloodshed started in the capital Baghdad before stretching
to the north and south of the country, hitting 10 cities and towns in
quick succession in tactics that bore the hallmark of the jihadist
network.
Some 250 people were also wounded, security officials said, as a total
of 14 car bombs wrought havoc for police and soldiers whose ability to
protect the country is under close scrutiny as US forces have drawn
down.
In the deadliest attack, a car bomb at a passport office in Kut,
southeast of Baghdad, killed 20 people, including 15 police, and
wounded 90 others, most of them police, Lieutenant Ali Hussein said.
In Baghdad, a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at a police station in
the northeastern suburb of Qahira, killing 15 people and wounding
dozens more, security and medical officials said.
The attack in the mixed Sunni-Shi'ite neighbourhood took place mid
morning, according to an interior ministry official who gave the toll.
"The victims included policemen and civilians," he said.
A doctor at Medical City Hospital said they had received the bodies of
two women, two children and two police officers, and that 44 other
people were receiving treatment.
A spike in unrest over the past two months has triggered concern that
Iraqi forces are not yet ready to handle security on their own,
especially with no new government formed in Baghdad since a March 7
general election.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed the overnight attacks on al-Qaeda
and remnants of the Baath party of now executed dictator Saddam
Hussein, who he said wanted "to shake people's confidence in the
security forces".
"They (the security forces) are ready to bear the responsibility after
US (combat) forces withdraw at the end of August," Mr aliki said.
The US army announced yesterday that troop levels were below 50,000 in
line with President Barack Obama's directives as part of a "responsible
drawdown" of troops, seven years on from the invasion which ousted
Saddam.
The reduction has raised fears that al-Qaeda-linked insurgents will
step up their attacks.
A separate car bomb in Baghdad killed two police and wounded seven
civilians in the city centre, while two other police were shot dead in
Al-Amel, a southern district, the interior ministry official said.
In the north of the country, a car bomb in the ethnically divided, oil
hub of Kirkuk killed one person and wounded 11, said Colonel Adel Zain
al-Abideen, the city's acting chief of police.
In Iraq's main northern city of Mosul, a car bomb killed four civilians
and gunmen killed a lieutenant colonel at a police checkpoint.
In Muqdadiya, northeast of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded as a police
patrol passed, killing three civilians. When troops arrived to
investigate, a second bomb exploded, wounding six soldiers.
In western Iraq, three people, two of them police, were killed and 16
wounded in two car bombs, one of them at a police checkpoint in Ramadi,
the capital of Anbar province, a security official said.
And in Fallujah, also in Anbar, two soldiers were killed by a suicide
bomber who blew up a car by their checkpoint.
America now has 49,700 troops in Iraq - less than a third of the peak
figure of around 170,000 during the US military "surge" of 2007 when a
brutal Shi'ite-Sunni sectarian war cost thousands of lives.
Obama is to deliver a speech from the Oval Office 10am AEST today ,
marking the end of the US combat mission, a senior White House official
said.
Tens of thousands of US soldiers have been withdrawn in recent months
and the last American unit designated as a "combat brigade" crossed
into neighbouring Kuwait on August 19.
The remaining troops will be deployed on an "advise and assist" mission
until all US forces leave at the end of 2011.
July was the bloodiest month in Iraq since May 2008, according to
government officials, who said 535 people were killed. US military
officials have disputed the figure.
In other attacks overnight, a car bomb in the main southern city of
Basra wounded 12 people, including four police, a security official
said.
Near the central Shiite shrine city of Karbala, a car bomb wounded 29
people, including police, another security official said.
Read more:
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/car-bombs-target-police-kill-53/story-e6frfku0-1225910182239#ixzz0xff0MThk