Suicide bomber kills 18 in Baghdad

A suicide truck bomber struck a police station in a mainly Sunni area of Baghdad today, killing at least 18 people, police said, as insurgents apparently step up their campaign against fellow Sunnis seen as collaborating with the US and the Iraqi government.

The blast, which could be heard across the city and sent up a huge plume of black smoke over the skyline, came a day after Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubaie was seriously wounded in a suicide bombing during prayers at his home in Baghdad. Nine other people were killed in the attack, including al-Zubaie’s brother and an aide.

Al-Zubaie was in stable condition and moved out of the intensive care unit today, but he remained under anaesthesia at a US-run hospital in the heavily guarded Green Zone, Sunni lawmaker Dhafer al-Ani said.

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, a military spokesman, said he had visited al-Zubaie in the hospital and found him in good condition.

“The medical situation of Dr al-Zubaie is stable after he had a surgical operation to remove shrapnel from his lungs,” al-Moussawi told state-run Iraqiya television in a telephone interview.

The attacks – along with a rocket that slammed to earth 50 yards from visiting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday – have shaken the image that the situation in the capital is calming during a security sweep that began February 14, aimed at quelling the Sunni-Shiite violence that surged after last year’s bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra.

They also appeared to signal a renewed focus by insurgents targeting Iraqi security forces, politicians and tribes perceived as co-operating with the US-Iraqi efforts. The bomber attacked al-Zubaie a day after a statement purportedly posted on the Internet by an al Qaida umbrella group singled him out as a stooge “to the crusader occupiers”.

The Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front, the biggest Sunni parliamentary bloc to which al-Zubaie belonged, denounced the assassination attempt and said such attacks will not force Sunnis to abandon the political process.

“Whether al Qaida or other organisations were behind such attacks, this will not force us to abandon our principles and firm stances in moving ahead with the political process,” said Sunni lawmaker Amil al-Qadhi. “Our decision was a strategic one and we do believe that our presence is very critical in this period and it is impossible to withdraw from the political process.”

The suicide bomber targeting police in the volatile Sunni neighbourhood of Dora managed to bypass tight security to get within 25 yards of the station by hiding the explosives under a load of bricks, detonating them after being stopped by a long barricade guarded by policemen and surrounded by concrete blast walls.

The force of the blast caused part of the blue and white, two-story building to collapse, including the ceiling of a room in which some detainees were being held, police said. Those killed included five policemen and 13 civilians, including some detainees, while 15 officers and 11 civilians were wounded, according to the authorities.

A crane was brought in to help remove debris as police searched for survivors or more victims.

Police Cpl. Hussam Ali, who witnessed the blast from a nearby guard post, said the attacker took advantage of construction work being done inside the station and was able to circumvent the tight security to reach the main gate by hiding the explosives under bricks.

He said trucks had been coming in and out all day so the attack vehicle did not raise suspicions.

The blast caused part of the building to collapse and knocked down blast barriers over a car parked near the gate.

“We were very cautious, but this time we were taken by surprise,” Ali said. “The insurgents are inventing new methods to hurt us.”

The Islamic State in Iraq claimed responsibility for the bombing against al-Zubaie in which the bomber detonated an explosives vest after weekly prayers in a small mosque attached to al-Zubaie’s home near the Foreign Ministry, just north of the capital’s heavily guarded Green Zone.

The Iraqi military spokesman al-Moussawi called the suicide bombing an inside job, telling state television that an al Qaida fighter had infiltrated al-Zubaie’s security detachment.