Blasts rock Baghdad, toll rises
Two car bombs have exploded outside police stations in Iraq, leaving at least nine people killed and shattering any hopes of an end to violence after Saddam Hussein’s capture.
One car bomb ripped through the Zuhur police station at al-Husayniah village, 30 km north of Baghdad, killing eight policemen and injuring more than 20 others on Monday, reported our correspondent.
A second explosives-laden car, with the driver inside, exploded outside the Amiriyah criminal investigation department in Baghdad, shortly afterwards, killing at least one policemen and injuring more than twenty.
News agencies reported that the driver was also killed in the mainly residential area. Another four cars were destroyed in the blast.
A third attack was foiled in Amiriyah when police fired at a
speeding car. The driver abandoned the vehicle and fled. Explosives were found in his car and defused.
Also in Baghdad, several large explosions reverberated in the centre of the city. Smoke rose on the east bank of the Tigris River. The cause was not immediately clear.
Police targeted
On Sunday, at least 18 people were killed and 29 others wounded when a car bomb exploded at a police station in Khalidiyah, west of Baghdad. Two civilians, including a seven-year-old girl, were among the dead.
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The car bomb came a day after US officials confirmed ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was captured after hiding in a three-metre deep hole, at a northern Iraqi farm.
Questions were raised whether the Iraqi resistance against occupation forces would continue after the former leader’s capture.
US Senator Jay Rockefeller, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the circumstances of Saddam’s arrest made it unlikely that he had been directing resistance attacks.
Demonstrator dies
Meanwhile, one student demonstrator was killed during a protest against Saddam’s capture by US forces in Tikrit on Monday, reported our correspondent.
Nearly 300 students participated in the demonstration before US soldiers dispersed it by beating some demonstrators with batons and arresting them. They shouted “With our blood, with our soul we will defend you Saddam Hussein.”
Some demonstrators wept and many carried old dinar notes bearing Saddam’s face.
In related news, resistance attacks against occupation forces have continued unabated.
Near Tikrit, a US convoy delivering military equipment came under attack, without causing casualties, reported our correspondent. One driver was injured.
An Iraqi Civil Defense Corps soldier was wounded in a drive-by shooting in Adwar, the town where Saddam Hussein was captured early on Monday.
The ICDC soldier was manning a road checkpoint when assailants in a car opened fire, wounding him in the leg, said Captain Enian Weikel.
The car sped away, but the incident followed a similar drive-by shooting on Sunday at 4:30pm (1330 GMT) on US soldiers in Tikrit, although no one was injured in that attack.