fantassin
02-11-2004, 01:22 AM
Car bomb kills 20 would-be Iraqi soldiers
Attack comes day after explosion kills 50
Wednesday, February 11, 2004 Posted: 0556 GMT ( 1:56 PM HKT)
SPECIAL REPORT
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- In the second deadly attack in as many days, an explosion blamed on a car bomb killed about 20 people who were standing in line for recruitment into the new Iraqi army Wednesday morning, coalition military sources said.
The blast happened at 7:40 a.m. local time in front of the Iraqi Army Recruiting Center in Baghdad, a source said.
The bomb was described as about the same size or "possibly a little smaller" than the one that exploded last month at the so-called Assassin's Gate, where Iraqis line up to enter the coalition's secured "Green Zone" in Baghdad, the source said. That bombing killed 23 people.
On Tuesday, a bomb killed at least 50 people near an Iraqi police station, and a U.S. Army spokesman said the attack had some "fingerprints" of al Qaeda.
The vehicle bomb was detonated near an Iraqi police station in Iskandariyah while applicants stood in line for police jobs, Iraqi officials said.
At least 50 people were killed and three times as many people may have been wounded in the Iskandariyah blast, an Interior Ministry source said.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the Army spokesman in Baghdad, gave somewhat lower casualty figures, saying at least 35 people were killed and 75 wounded.
The U.S. military command said its figures could be low since Iraqi authorities are handling the investigation, according to The Associated Press.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said a bomb detonated in a pickup truck that had belonged to Saddam Hussein's former intelligence service, and he said it destroyed a portion of a street that also has a courthouse and an office that distributes national identity cards in the mixed Sunni-Shiite town, about 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Kimmitt told reporters that while no group had claimed responsibility, the estimated 500 pounds of explosives in the vehicle had some "fingerprints" of the foreign fighter operations referred to in a seized memo purported to be from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (Full story)
"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," he said. "Large number of civilians outside of a police station."
He said similar attacks have occurred recently.
"This is indicative of a number of types of attacks we've seen directed against Iraqi civilians and symbols of Iraqi authority which are consistent with some of the other bombings we've seen of late," he said.
Kimmitt told reporters that the purported Zarqawi memo raises concern about the growth of Iraqi security forces, but that "the current strategy that we are implementing is in fact working."
Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor said the memo was shown Tuesday to members of the Iraq Governing Council and he hopes the coalition and Iraq will react appropriately to the memo's chief strategy -- the launching of divisive attacks against Shiite targets.
Kimmitt said that despite the "almost daily" attacks, recruiting police officers hasn't stopped.
Senor said Tuesday the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqis who work with it would not be deterred by attacks.
"We have a lot of good days; unfortunately we also have a lot of bad days like today," Senor said. "The good news is that we have more good days than bad days."
Coalition and Iraqi forces are bracing for more violence from anti-U.S. guerrillas as the country heads toward independence July 1.
In two other separate attacks Tuesday, two pairs of Iraqi police officers were shot as they drove to work in Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said.
The four officers were killed when gunmen sprayed their vehicles with bullets. In each case, the officers were traveling together. A major and captain who were cousins were killed in western Baghdad; two brothers, both lieutenants, died in the eastern part of the capital, the sources said.
'Fingerprints' of foreign fighters?
The attacks come a day after the U.S. military released parts of the letter indicating Islamic fighters may have asked al Qaeda to help provoke Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority into a civil war.
Military officials said they suspect the 17-page letter was written by al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian believed connected to al Qaeda.
The letter was on a computer disk captured in January along with Hassan Ghul, a man identified as an al Qaeda courier, senior coalition officials said. Ghul identified Zarqawi as the letter's author, one official said.
Military officials said they think the letter was intended for al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan and is a call for help.
The letter, translated from Arabic to English by the U.S.-led coalition, expressed concern about the growth of the Iraqi police, which it calls one of the four main enemies of the guerrillas. The others named are the Americans, Kurds and Shiites.
U.S. officials said last month that mounting evidence suggests Zarqawi was involved in some of last year's major attacks in Iraq, including those on Italian forces, U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and a mosque in Najaf.
CNN's Jane Arraf contributed to this report.
Attack comes day after explosion kills 50
Wednesday, February 11, 2004 Posted: 0556 GMT ( 1:56 PM HKT)
SPECIAL REPORT
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- In the second deadly attack in as many days, an explosion blamed on a car bomb killed about 20 people who were standing in line for recruitment into the new Iraqi army Wednesday morning, coalition military sources said.
The blast happened at 7:40 a.m. local time in front of the Iraqi Army Recruiting Center in Baghdad, a source said.
The bomb was described as about the same size or "possibly a little smaller" than the one that exploded last month at the so-called Assassin's Gate, where Iraqis line up to enter the coalition's secured "Green Zone" in Baghdad, the source said. That bombing killed 23 people.
On Tuesday, a bomb killed at least 50 people near an Iraqi police station, and a U.S. Army spokesman said the attack had some "fingerprints" of al Qaeda.
The vehicle bomb was detonated near an Iraqi police station in Iskandariyah while applicants stood in line for police jobs, Iraqi officials said.
At least 50 people were killed and three times as many people may have been wounded in the Iskandariyah blast, an Interior Ministry source said.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the Army spokesman in Baghdad, gave somewhat lower casualty figures, saying at least 35 people were killed and 75 wounded.
The U.S. military command said its figures could be low since Iraqi authorities are handling the investigation, according to The Associated Press.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said a bomb detonated in a pickup truck that had belonged to Saddam Hussein's former intelligence service, and he said it destroyed a portion of a street that also has a courthouse and an office that distributes national identity cards in the mixed Sunni-Shiite town, about 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Kimmitt told reporters that while no group had claimed responsibility, the estimated 500 pounds of explosives in the vehicle had some "fingerprints" of the foreign fighter operations referred to in a seized memo purported to be from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (Full story)
"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," he said. "Large number of civilians outside of a police station."
He said similar attacks have occurred recently.
"This is indicative of a number of types of attacks we've seen directed against Iraqi civilians and symbols of Iraqi authority which are consistent with some of the other bombings we've seen of late," he said.
Kimmitt told reporters that the purported Zarqawi memo raises concern about the growth of Iraqi security forces, but that "the current strategy that we are implementing is in fact working."
Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor said the memo was shown Tuesday to members of the Iraq Governing Council and he hopes the coalition and Iraq will react appropriately to the memo's chief strategy -- the launching of divisive attacks against Shiite targets.
Kimmitt said that despite the "almost daily" attacks, recruiting police officers hasn't stopped.
Senor said Tuesday the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqis who work with it would not be deterred by attacks.
"We have a lot of good days; unfortunately we also have a lot of bad days like today," Senor said. "The good news is that we have more good days than bad days."
Coalition and Iraqi forces are bracing for more violence from anti-U.S. guerrillas as the country heads toward independence July 1.
In two other separate attacks Tuesday, two pairs of Iraqi police officers were shot as they drove to work in Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said.
The four officers were killed when gunmen sprayed their vehicles with bullets. In each case, the officers were traveling together. A major and captain who were cousins were killed in western Baghdad; two brothers, both lieutenants, died in the eastern part of the capital, the sources said.
'Fingerprints' of foreign fighters?
The attacks come a day after the U.S. military released parts of the letter indicating Islamic fighters may have asked al Qaeda to help provoke Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority into a civil war.
Military officials said they suspect the 17-page letter was written by al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian believed connected to al Qaeda.
The letter was on a computer disk captured in January along with Hassan Ghul, a man identified as an al Qaeda courier, senior coalition officials said. Ghul identified Zarqawi as the letter's author, one official said.
Military officials said they think the letter was intended for al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan and is a call for help.
The letter, translated from Arabic to English by the U.S.-led coalition, expressed concern about the growth of the Iraqi police, which it calls one of the four main enemies of the guerrillas. The others named are the Americans, Kurds and Shiites.
U.S. officials said last month that mounting evidence suggests Zarqawi was involved in some of last year's major attacks in Iraq, including those on Italian forces, U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and a mosque in Najaf.
CNN's Jane Arraf contributed to this report.