July 28, 2004
By Faris Mehdawi
Photo: Iraqi police carry wounded from a damaged shop, following an explosion in Baquba 60 kms (45 miles) north of Baghdad on July 28, 2004 in this frame grab taken from video footage. A suicide car bomb attack in the Iraqi city of Baquba on Wednesday killed at least 70 people and wounded 40, a senior Interior Ministry official said. REUTERS.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi forces, insurgents, civilians and three U.S. service members lost their lives in violence Wednesday, with at least 68 killed in a Baquba suicide bombing and 42 dead in fighting in south-central Iraq.
Also, an Iraqi was killed in a blast near a Baghdad police station and an enemy combatant died in fighting in Ramadi.
At the same time, several hostages remain under the gun of Iraqi militants, and authorities are working to free them.
Speaking in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell condemned the Baquba attack, which wounded at least 56 others, calling it "an attempt by murderers to deny the Iraqi people their dream." (Full story)
Powell is scheduled to meet with Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday.
Police said the bomber drove a Toyota mini-bus into a marketplace near a police station, where would-be recruits were lined up outside, and detonated the explosives.
Among those killed were 21 passengers on a bus driving by.
The Baquba suicide blast was so intense it shattered glass in nearby cafes, ripped facades off buildings and set fire to other vehicles, video from the scene showed.
Meanwhile, three U.S. soldiers died Wednesday in two separate attacks.
Two U.S. service members died of wounds received in fighting in Ramadi, the U.S. military said.
The two were wounded along with eight U.S. service members when U.S. military camps came under fire.
Photo: An Iraqi soldier holds his injured brother's hand as he lies on a hospital bed after being hurt when a suicide car bomb blew up in Baqouba, Iraq, some 65 kms northeast of Baghdad, Wednesday July 28, 2004. A suicide attacker killed at least 51 people when he exploded a bomb-laden vehicle outside a central Baqouba police station Wednesday, a top police official said. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
An "enemy combatant" also was killed in the fighting in the Sunni Triangle town, the military said.
In Baghdad, an improvised explosive device killed a U.S. soldier serving with Task Force Baghdad, the Coalition Press Information Center said. Three other soldiers and a civilian were wounded in the attack.
The deaths bring the number of U.S. troop fatalities to 912 in the war in Iraq. Of those, 677 deaths were combat-related and 235 were non-combat incidents, according to the U.S. military.
In other violence Wednesday:
-- Thirty-five suspected insurgents and seven Iraqi forces died in battle In As Suwayra in Wasit province south of Baghdad, according to the Polish-led command. The fighting came during a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation. Forty arrests were made by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
-- An explosion left one Iraqi dead and six others wounded in Baghdad.
Hostage talks 'going very good'
A Kuwaiti company negotiating the release of seven truck drivers who were kidnapped in Iraq on Wednesday said negotiations are "going very good."
"We are just waiting now," a representative of Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company said.
Seven truck drivers who work for KGL -- three Kenyans, three Indians and an Egyptian -- are being held by a group called the Islamic Secret Army, Black Banners Brigades.
KGL said it is pleased with the role an Iraqi tribal leader, Sheikh Hisham al-Dulemi, is playing in the negotiations.
The kidnappers requested that Al-Dulemi represent them in the talks. Earlier, KGL had questioned al-Dulemi's role, dismissing him as "just another name."
Two Jordanian drivers were kidnapped Monday by a group that calls itself the Mujahedeen Corps.
The kidnappers have demanded that the drilling and contracting company the men work for in Iraq stop doing business with the U.S. military.
Meanwhile, the government is preparing a three-day national conference, beginning Saturday, to choose a 100-person interim body that will advise and oversee the newly installed interim government.
The conference will be made up of 1,000 people and will bring together Iraqis representing every province in the country and all walks of life, including political parties, tribal leaders, unions, professional groups, universities and religious leaders.
Other developments
# On Tuesday night, a U.S. soldier was killed and three others were wounded in a roadside bomb attack on their patrol near Balad Ruz north of Baghdad, the Coalition Press Information Center said.
# Egyptian officials in Cairo and Washington dismissed a CNN report Tuesday that their government paid hundreds of thousan
Photo: An Iraqi soldier holds his injured brother's hand as he lies on a hospital bed after being hurt when a suicide car bomb blew up in Baqouba, Iraq, some 65 kms northeast of Baghdad, Wednesday July 28, 2004. A suicide attacker killed at least 51 people when he exploded a bomb-laden vehicle outside a central Baqouba police station Wednesday, a top police official said. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/07/28/iraq.main/index.html