Car Bomb Rocks Iraq Police Station - 50 Dead, 50 injured

February 10, 2004

ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq  — A powerful car bomb exploded Tuesday morning at a police station south of Baghdad, killing at least 50 people and wounding another 50, according to local authorities.

"This figure might increase," hospital director Razaq Jabbar said. "There were some body parts that haven't been identified yet. Some more bodies may be trapped under the rubble."

In Baghdad, Lt. Col. Dan Williams, a coalition spokesman, said no U.S. or other coalition forces were killed or injured.

U.S. officials in Baghdad put the figure at 35 killed and 75 wounded, but said the figure could be higher since Iraqi authorities were handling the investigation.

Jabbar said the death toll at his facility was at least 50, with 50 injured. He added that he had heard three others died at another hospital.

Policeman Wissam Abdul-Karim said he was standing in front of the town's courthouse, near the police station, when "I heard a very strong explosion" and "the blast threw me on the ground."

Several recruits were lined up outside the station to apply for security jobs when the blast occurred.

Abdul-Karim did not know whether the explosives went off in a stationary vehicle or were detonated by a homicide bomber driving by.

Part of the police station collapsed in the explosion, Fox News has learned. There were reports of a horrific scene outside, with people mopping up blood and body parts with buckets of water and family members of the dead and wounded surrounding the area.

Abdul-Karim said security for the facility included a checkpoint surrounded by sandbags and barbed wire.

U.S. paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division sealed off area around the station and near the blast site. Iskandariyah, an ancient city named for Alexander the Great, is about 30 miles south of Baghdad.

Tuesday's bombing was the latest in a series of attacks against Iraqis working with the U.S.-led coalition, though the incidents have been moving away from central Baghdad and into the city's suburbs.

Hussein Mohammed, 18, said he was standing in Iskandariyah's public market when he heard a tremendous explosion at about 9:15 a.m.

Another witness, who refused to give his name, described the blast as "really strong" and said body parts littered the street near the station.


"There was not one body in one piece," he said.

Malik Moussa, a 63-year-old lawyer, said he was walking to the police station when the blast occurred.

"I saw two cars totally burned out," Moussa said. "Blood was gushing out of my right arm."

Insurgents have mounted a string of homicide car-bomb and bomb-vest attacks in recent weeks. Al Qaeda or similar fundamentalist Sunni groups are thought to be behind them, as most U.S. military analysts doubt former Baathist officials would be willing to sacrifice themselves in such a manner.

The deadliest attack was in the predominately Kurdish northern city of Irbil on Feb. 1, when at least 109 people were killed while celebrating the holiday of Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice of Abraham, at local Kurdish party offices. Those bombings were the first in Iraq known to have been committed by attackers wearing bomb vests strapped to their torsos.

Thirty-one people were killed when a car bomb exploded near the main gate to the U.S.-led coalition's headquarters in Baghdad.

On Aug. 29, more than 85 people were killed by a car bomb outside a mosque in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. The dead included Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim.

Meanwhile, the Baghdad Convention Center, which houses the U.S. military press center and other coalition facilities, was evacuated Tuesday after bomb-sniffing dogs detected something suspicious, Williams said.

On Monday, a homicide bomber walked up to the house of brothers Majid and Amer Ali Suleiman in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, and detonated explosives strapped to his body, witnesses said.

Three guards were seriously injured but the brothers — who are among the city's most prominent tribal leaders working with coalition forces — escaped unhurt.

The bomber had approached the house earlier when the brothers were receiving callers, and was told to leave, the witnesses said.

Insurgents have repeatedly warned Iraqis not to cooperate with the Americans. The most recent threats were contained in pamphlets circulated in Ramadi and nearby Fallujah by a purported coalition of 12 insurgent groups.

Ramadi and Fallujah are located in the Sunni Triangle, a major center of resistance to the U.S.-led occupation.

Also Monday, defense officials in Washington said American forces in Iraq have detained one of the remaining most-wanted members of Saddam Hussein's government.

Muhsin Khadr al-Khafaji, No. 48 on the 55 most-wanted list, was turned over last weekend to U.S. troops in the Baghdad area, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The officials did not say who turned him over.

Fox News' Steve Harrigan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110941,00.html