Suicide bomber kills 68 in another bloody Iraqi day

A suicide car bomber struck outside a police recruiting centre today, killing 68 Iraqis and turning the busy streets of Baqouba into a bloody tangle of twisted metal and dead bodies.

The attack, which destroyed a passing commuter bus and killed 21 people inside, was the deadliest violence in Iraq since the United States transferred sovereignty to an interim government on June 28.

The street was filled with charred vehicles, pieces of glass, twisted metal and abandoned shoes, all covered in blood and human remains.

Dead bodies lay scattered about – in the middle of the road, under cars, up against nearby buildings. A white metal security gate outside a shop was stained red with blood.

“These were all innocent Iraqis. There were no Americans,” an angry man, who pounding his hands against his head in grief, shouted at the scene.

Many of the dead and injured were among hundreds of Iraqis gathered outside the police station hoping to join the force, police said.

“As one of the officers was giving us instructions on how to register we heard a big explosion,” said Sabah Nouri, 33, whose left leg and hand were injured. “Suddenly I found myself being thrown to the ground and I was unable to move, then some people lifted me and took me to the hospital.”

The bombing came just three days before Iraq was to hold a national conference in Baghdad, which officials fear will be a major target for attacks.

It “was once again an attempt by murderers to deny the Iraqi people their dream of a peaceful country that rests on a solid foundation of freedom”, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Cairo.

“We have to condemn it. We have to fight it. We must not let these kinds of tragic incidents deter us from our goal.”

Iraqi officials have said they expected such attacks to intensify as the country tries to edge toward democracy, and violence surged across the country.

Insurgents in Iraq’s violent Anbar province killed two coalition troops during clashes today, and enemy fire forced two American military aircraft to make emergency landings.

A US spokesman said Marine forces clashed with insurgents in several areas of Anbar province, west of Baghdad, during the day.

He said initial reports indicated that two multinational force members died from wounds received during clashes in the province, while two coalition aircraft were forced to make emergency landings.

It was not immediately clear if the two troops died during the aircraft landings.

Clashes south-east of Baghdad today killed 35 insurgents and seven Iraqi police, a US soldier was killed in a bomb attack and a policeman was assassinated.

Police and Iraqi National Guard have increasingly been targeted by insurgents, who see them as collaborators with American forces. US troops also have been letting police and guardsmen take the lead in some operations, lowering their own profile and making them harder to target.

The bombing in Baqouba, a turbulent city 35 miles north-east of Baghdad, shattered the bustling heart of a commercial district filled with shops, fruit stands, government buildings and the police station.

Witnesses said the bomb targeted men waiting outside the al-Najda police station trying to sign up for the force.

The blast killed 68 people and wounded 56 others, according to Saad al-Amili, a Health Ministry official. Twenty-one of the dead were on a nearby white commuter minibus bus that was turned into a charred husk.

“It’s all civilian casualties at this stage,” US Army Captain Marshall Jackson said.

The local hospital was overwhelmed with the casualties. Every bed was filled, forcing many of the injured to sit on the floor, amid pools of blood, as they were treated by frantic health workers. One injured man sitting against the wall, held his head in his hands and wept.

The morgue overflowed and bodies were lined up on the ground outside, some covered up with blankets, one only with palm fronds.

The bombing was the deadliest insurgent attack in Iraq since June 24, when co-ordinated attacks in north and central Iraq killed 89 people, including three American soldiers.

On April 21, five suicide bombings near police stations and police academy in southern city of Basra killed 74 people and wound 160 others. A co-ordinated attack on Shiite Muslim shrines in Karbala and Baghdad on March 2 killed at least 181.

“The terrorists’ goal is to hamper the police work, terrorise our citizens and show that the government is unable to protect the Iraqi people, and this will not happen,” said Hamid al-Beyati, a deputy foreign minister.

In other violence, 35 insurgents and seven Iraqi soldiers were killed during an operation involving US forces that targeted militants crossing over the Iraq-Iran border to attack coalition forces.

The early morning fighting in Suwariyah was a joint operation between US special forces, Iraqi security personnel and Ukrainian troops.

Ten Iraqi soldiers were injured and 40 insurgents captured, a coalition spokesman said.

The death of a US soldier, killed by a roadside bomb on Tuesday night, raised the toll of American military personnel killed in Iraq to 905 since the war began.