Suicide truck attack kills nine in Baghdad

A SUICIDE bomber blew up a fuel truck near a Baghdad police station yesterday, killing at least nine people, wounding 62 and destroying cars and buildings.

Meanwhile, The Philippines said it had completed the withdrawal of its humanitarian military contingent in Iraq a month ahead of schedule in a bid to save the life of hostage Angelo de la Cruz, a father of eight who guerrillas have threatened to execute.

The pull-out has been criticised by Washington and by Iraq’s interim government, which said Manila was bowing to terrorists.

An Egyptian hostage held by guerrillas was freed and safely reached the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad yesterday, diplomats at the embassy said.

Driver Mohammed al-Gharabawi was released after the Saudi company he worked for met the demands of his kidnappers by promising to stop doing business in Iraq.

The Baghdad bomb was the latest of at least five suicide attacks over the past week aimed at Iraqi police, National Guard or senior members of Iraq’s new government, which have killed more than 35 Iraqis in a seemingly accelerated campaign. Iraq’s Health Ministry said it had so far recorded nine dead and 62 wounded but expected its death toll to rise.

It said bodies were still being brought to hospitals and boxes of remains had yet to be sifted through.

At the scene of the blast, US Army Lieutenant Colonel Bill Salter said between 10 and 15 people had been killed in an attack he said was probably carried out by a suicide bomber.

Witnesses said they saw a fuel tanker racing toward the police station moments before the explosion.

And in the latest assassination of senior bureaucrats, Defence Ministry official Issam Jassem Qassim was shot dead outside his home by three gunmen late Sunday, a ministry spokesman said, a day after a failed attempt on the life of Iraq’s justice minister, which killed five bodyguards.

Yesterday’s suicide bomb was detonated shortly after 8am as people were arriving at work.

Car workshops across the road from the police station bore the brunt of the blast, witnesses said, and several people working there were killed.

“Those who were standing in the open were killed. Those who saw it were killed,” said car workshop worker Laith Abdel Karim.