Baghdad bombings may be linked to former leader’s capture

A SUICIDE bomber driving a four-wheel drive taxi killed eight Iraqi policemen in an attack yesterday on a station in the capital’s northern outskirts, their commander said.

Lt Col Ali Amer said 10 officers were injured in the blast in the northern Husainiyah district. Residents said at least five civilians, including a five-year-old girl, were also wounded by flying glass and debris.

Earlier, seven officers were wounded when another car bomb exploded in the western Ameriyah neighbourhood just after 8 am.

That attack was partially foiled by Iraqi police and US Military Police who fired on a second vehicle and prevented it from ramming the police station and detonating, said Brig Gen Mark Hertling, of the US Army 1st Armoured Division.

A would-be suicide bomber in the second ran off, abandoning the vehicle without detonating it, Hertling said. The man was later captured, said Army Capt Brad Loudon.

The car’s 250 kilograms of plastic explosives, with a powerful limpet mine attached as a detonator, was defused, Hertling said

Later in the day, several large explosions reverberated in central Baghdad. The cause was not immediately clear.

Hertling said American troops found yet another explosives-packed vehicle parked in east Baghdad on Sunday that appeared to have been abandoned, possibly due to mechanical trouble.

“Right now, we don’t know what the target was,” Hertling said. “It goes with the intelligence we had yesterday, that there would be several (car bombs). We dodged a couple of bullets in Baghdad.”

The attacks came less than a day after officials announced the capture.

American officials in Baghdad have warned that the capture could lead to an increase in insurgents’ attacks against troops of the US-led coalition and their Iraqi allies.

Amer said the explosion in Husainiyah occurred when a yellow Toyota Land Cruiser drove through the razor fence encircling the building, and detonated next to the gate. Several houses and shops were damaged and at least three cars were burned.

The blast left a one-metre deep crater about 10 metres from the entrance to the building whose facade was demolished by the blast. The force of the blast heaved the car into the air and into the police station’s courtyard.