Another car bomb kills 35 in Iraq

BAGHDAD – A suicide car bomber killed 35 people at an Iraqi military base in Baghdad yesterday as guerrillas intensified a bloody campaign to sabotage plans for US-led occupation to give way to Iraqi rule on June 30.

The blast, outside an army recruiting centre on a busy road, also wounded 138 people, Iraq’s health minister said. Colonel Mike Murray, of the US First Cavalry Division, said the bomber had blown up a white four-wheel-drive vehicle at the centre near Muthanna airport, where US troops are based.Murray said about 175 army recruits inside the Iraqi base were unhurt.Passersby took the brunt of the blast.One man lay dead in a battered white car after the explosion as Iraqi soldiers, rescuers and locals milled about in confusion.Another bloodied body lay on the road.It was the latest attack in a lethal drive by guerrillas determined to undermine Iraq’s new interim government ahead of the transfer of power from the US-led occupation.”This was a cowardly attack.It is a demonstration again that these attacks are aimed at the stability of Iraq and the Iraqi people,” prime minister Iyad Allawi said at the scene.The insurgents, thought to include Baathists loyal to Saddam Hussein, Iraqi nationalists and foreign militants, have targeted Iraq’s oil industry, government officials and security forces in the run-up to the handover.Oil exports, Iraq’s economic lifeblood, remained paralysed yesterday, and engineers said oil wells were being shut down while pipelines that were blown up in the south and north were repaired.President George W Bush, whose administration is under fire for its Iraq policies, said yesterday the United States was “bringing back a 5 000-year-old civilisation” in Iraq.But retired US diplomats and military officers said he had led the United States into an ill-planned war that had weakened US security, directly challenging one of Bush’s main arguments for re-election in November.The US military said a third soldier had died after a rocket attack on a base north of Baghdad on Wednesday.Since the US-led invasion to oust Saddam last year, at least 612 US soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq.”We all believe that current administration policies have failed in the primary responsibilities of preserving national security and providing world leadership,” said a statement signed by 27 retired US officials.”We need a change.”- Nampa-ReutersColonel Mike Murray, of the US First Cavalry Division, said the bomber had blown up a white four-wheel-drive vehicle at the centre near Muthanna airport, where US troops are based.Murray said about 175 army recruits inside the Iraqi base were unhurt.Passersby took the brunt of the blast.One man lay dead in a battered white car after the explosion as Iraqi soldiers, rescuers and locals milled about in confusion.Another bloodied body lay on the road.It was the latest attack in a lethal drive by guerrillas determined to undermine Iraq’s new interim government ahead of the transfer of power from the US-led occupation.”This was a cowardly attack.It is a demonstration again that these attacks are aimed at the stability of Iraq and the Iraqi people,” prime minister Iyad Allawi said at the scene.The insurgents, thought to include Baathists loyal to Saddam Hussein, Iraqi nationalists and foreign militants, have targeted Iraq’s oil industry, government officials and security forces in the run-up to the handover.Oil exports, Iraq’s economic lifeblood, remained paralysed yesterday, and engineers said oil wells were being shut down while pipelines that were blown up in the south and north were repaired.President George W Bush, whose administration is under fire for its Iraq policies, said yesterday the United States was “bringing back a 5 000-year-old civilisation” in Iraq.But retired US diplomats and military officers said he had led the United States into an ill-planned war that had weakened US security, directly challenging one of Bush’s main arguments for re-election in November.The US military said a third soldier had died after a rocket attack on a base north of Baghdad on Wednesday.Since the US-led invasion to oust Saddam last year, at least 612 US soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq.”We all believe that current administration policies have failed in the primary responsibilities of preserving national security and providing world leadership,” said a statement signed by 27 retired US officials.”We need a change.”- Nampa-Reuters