Bomber kills 12 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD – A suicide bomber blew up his car as police tried to stop it hurtling toward a heavily guarded US base in Baghdad yesterdayy, killing at least 12 Iraqis.

A US military spokesman said 12 Iraqis were killed and 13 wounded in the blast, which went off metres away from a former Iraqi military college now also occupied by US forces. Abdul Razzak Kadhem, a police captain at the scene, said four policemen and two civilians were killed.Kadhem said two police patrol cars had tried to intercept a suspicious vehicle that veered suddenly off a nearby motorway towards the base in southeastern Baghdad, when it exploded, destroying one police car and badly damaging another.Four police were also among the wounded, which US soldiers helped evacuate, he said.”They were targeting the forces of good, the police and Americans over there,” said Kadhem.”He was driving the wrong way down the road toward the base and when the police cars tried to intercept him, he decided to blow it up.”Steam could still be seen rising from two charred bodies in the burnt-out wreckage of the destroyed police car.All that remained of the bomber’s car was a blackened engine lying in the road that was littered with shards of glass and twisted metal.”One car was blown across the street,” said Abdel Hasan al-Jabbar, an off-duty civil defence worker who saw the blast.”The man inside had blood pouring from the top of his head.”Three civilian cars battered by the impact sat across the road along with a burnt-out van.A lorry laden with bricks was also damaged.Blood smeared the driver’s door on a white pick-up truck labelled Ministry of Agriculture.A Task Force Baghdad spokesman condemned the attack.”These random, senseless acts of violence only prove that anti-Iraqi forces have no regard for the people of Baghdad, or the future of this country,” said Lieutenant Colonel James Hutton, the public affairs officer of the First Cavalry Division.Guerrillas regularly target Iraqi police, whom they accuse of collaborating with the US-led occupation.- Nampa-ReutersAbdul Razzak Kadhem, a police captain at the scene, said four policemen and two civilians were killed.Kadhem said two police patrol cars had tried to intercept a suspicious vehicle that veered suddenly off a nearby motorway towards the base in southeastern Baghdad, when it exploded, destroying one police car and badly damaging another.Four police were also among the wounded, which US soldiers helped evacuate, he said.”They were targeting the forces of good, the police and Americans over there,” said Kadhem.”He was driving the wrong way down the road toward the base and when the police cars tried to intercept him, he decided to blow it up.”Steam could still be seen rising from two charred bodies in the burnt-out wreckage of the destroyed police car.All that remained of the bomber’s car was a blackened engine lying in the road that was littered with shards of glass and twisted metal.”One car was blown across the street,” said Abdel Hasan al-Jabbar, an off-duty civil defence worker who saw the blast.”The man inside had blood pouring from the top of his head.”Three civilian cars battered by the impact sat across the road along with a burnt-out van.A lorry laden with bricks was also damaged.Blood smeared the driver’s door on a white pick-up truck labelled Ministry of Agriculture.A Task Force Baghdad spokesman condemned the attack.”These random, senseless acts of violence only prove that anti-Iraqi forces have no regard for the people of Baghdad, or the future of this country,” said Lieutenant Colonel James Hutton, the public affairs officer of the First Cavalry Division.Guerrillas regularly target Iraqi police, whom they accuse of collaborating with the US-led occupation.- Nampa-Reuters