Iraq suicide bomb kills 15 policemen

A suicide car bomber wearing a police uniform killed at least 15 traffic policemen and wounded 100 others during morning roll call at a police headquarters in an oil-rich northern Kurdish city, the second such attack in as many days.

The bombing that ripped through the police facility was one in a series attacks, including at least five suicide car bombings, that swept Iraq yesterday. Authorities reported 37 people died in attacks nationwide in the ongoing militant offensive that has killed nearly 1,200 in less than two months.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber walked into a Baghdad kebab restaurant popular with policemen and blew himself up, killing 23 people, including seven officers.

“Most of the attacks targeting the Iraqi security forces, including the police, are launched by Islamic fundamentalists,” said Sabah Kadhim, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

“Iraq has become the centre of global terrorism, and those groups’ attacks are aiming to create a sectarian crisis. Their main aim is to keep the country in chaos.”

Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who leads al-Qaida in Iraq, purportedly gave his stamp of approval in an audiotaped message last month to the killing of fellow Muslims and civilians collaborating with the Shiite-led government and the US.

Irbil and nearby Sulaimaniyah are two key cities in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region, which has enjoyed autonomous rule since 1991. The area has been largely sheltered from the violence wracking the remainder of Iraq, but has seen several major bombings blamed on militant groups.

Yesterday’s attack in Irbil was the biggest in a day of violence during which at least 37 people were killed – mostly Iraqi policemen and soldiers. One US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in northern Iraq.

Some extremists also have started threatening fellow Sunni Arabs because some of the minority’s leaders have expressed a readiness to join the political process.

Sunni Arabs submitted a list of 15 candidates for a Shiite-dominated committee drafting Iraq’s constitution on Sunday, but were having second thoughts yesterday about a demand made by legislators that the group be endorsed by representatives of the entire community.

The snag could delay the constitutional process, further eroding the little time left for the charter to be drafted by mid-August.

A US-led offensive dubbed Operation Spear ended yesterday. It was launched last week with 1,000 Marines and Iraqi soldiers in western Anbar province to ebb the flow of foreign fighters entering from Syria.

The four-day campaign in the border city of Karabilah, 200 miles west of Baghdad, killed about 60 insurgents. One Marine also died.