Seven die as car bombs explode

In the second major assault on Baghdad’s police force in two days, two car bombs exploded next to an Iraqi police station just outside Baghdad’s Green Zone today, killing seven people and wounding 59 people, mostly police. Insurgents killed 16 officers in an attack yesterday.

The US military announced that four American military personnel had died in separate attacks over the two days.

Two car bombs exploded at 9.30am(6.30am) on Saturday near a checkpoint leading to Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the offices of Iraq’s interim government and several foreign missions, including the US Embassy.

Only one blast was heard at the time, suggesting the bombs may have been timed to detonate simultaneously.

Bursts of automatic fire followed the thunderous explosion, which shook windows several hundred yards away in buildings on the opposite side of the Tigris River from where the attack occurred.

Health officials said the bodies of seven people killed by the blast and 59 wounded were taken to two Baghdad hospitals. They said most of the victims were policemen.

The interim Iraqi government’s security forces are regular targets for insurgents, who have been increasing attacks before the scheduled elections on January 30. Hundreds of police officers and members of the Iraqi National Guard have been killed in strikes by insurgents, who see the police as collaborators with foreign occupiers.

A US soldier in a lorry north of Baghdad was killed when a roadside bomb destroyed his vehicle today. Another U.S. soldier died and five were injured in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Baghdad.

Yesterday, a suicide bomber killed two Americans along the Iraqi-Jordanian border, the military said.

The killings took the number of US military members to have died since the war began in March 2003 to at least 1,269, according to a count by the Associated Press.

Jordan announced today that Iraq had closed the Karameh border crossing until further notice. No reason was given, but the crossing point between the two neighbours has been closed several times before for security reasons.

Insurgents yesterday attacked a police station near the heavily patrolled airport road, killing 16 officers and looting its arsenal of weapons. Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Police in the northern city of Samarra also came under attack today. Mortars were fired at a station after midnight, wounding two officers. Gunmen injured two policemen in another attack at about 10am.

New details emerged today about heavy fighting in Mosul, the northern Iraqi city that has seen a surge in violence including several attacks in which insurgents captured and looted several police stations.

The US military said in a statement that the fighting began when insurgents attacked four police stations but were repelled.

About 70 insurgents also tried to ambush a U.S. patrol. After regrouping, U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an assault on “pockets of resistance” in Mosul, killing more than two dozen insurgents.

In Kirkuk, U.S. soldiers killed an Iraqi driver who didn’t slow down at a checkpoint set up following a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a drinks shop which had been attacked late yesterday.

Elsewhere, Japan’s top defence official, Yoshinori Ono, travelled to Iraq to visit Japanese troops on a humanitarian mission.

Tokyo must soon decide whether to extend its non-combat military team in Iraq, but it is widely expected to approve an extension beyond a deadline of December 14 for its 550 troops based in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah.