Suicide Bomber Kills up to Thirty in Baghdad
Pakistan Times Monitoring Desk

BAGHDAD (Iraq): A suicide bomber strapped with explosives killed up to 30 people Saturday outside a Baghdad recruiting center for Iraqi police special forces, police and hospital officials said.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack in a posting on an Islamic Web site. Its authenticity couldn't be verified.

The attack occurred about 9 a.m. in western Baghdad's Yarmouk district, according to Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

There was confusion over the precise death count from the attack, the latest against Iraq's security forces.

Yarmouk Hospital reported receiving 17 dead and 22 wounded from the blast. The dead included 11 recruits and six civilian bystanders, the hospital said. But Abdul-Rahman put the death toll at eight, down from his original count of 20. He said the 20 figure was based on an erroneous preliminary report.

The U.S. military said between eight and 10 people died in the attack.

Insurgents bent on destabilizing Iraq's government frequently target security forces and recruiting centers. Blast walls usually surround important government buildings, but long lines that form outside expose people to attacks.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Iraq since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his Shiite-led government on April 28.

In other violence, police Lt. Col. Anwar Sheik Kabeer Sorchyee was shot dead Saturday as he drove to work in the northern city of Mosul, police said.

Explosion

A bomb exploded Saturday in a vegetable cart in a market in Mahmoudiya, a religiously mixed flashpoint town about 12 miles south of Baghdad, killing two people and injuring 10 others, hospital officials said.

The blast occurred a few minutes after mourners passed by with the body of an aide to Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani — Kamal Ezz al-Deen al-Ghuraifi — who was slain Friday outside a Baghdad mosque.

It was unclear if the bomb was intended for the mourners, who were carrying the body through the town en route to burial in the Shiite shrine city of Najaf.

Also in Mahmoudiya, U.S. troops arrested Sheik Adnan Fahd, the head of the area's al-Ghrir tribe, according to his brother, Eissa Fahd. There was no comment from U.S. officials.

Separately, a policeman and a female relative traveling with him in a civilian car were killed in a drive-by shooting in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, authorities said.

Also Saturday, al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for Friday's suicide attack outside al-Jaafari's Islamic Dawa Party offices in Baghdad's Mansour district. The posting on an Islamic Web site could not be verified.

Most attacks have been blamed on Sunni Arab insurgents seeking to destabilize the U.S.-backed Iraqi government, which is dominated by Shiites and Kurds. Sunnis, who dominated Iraq for decades, lost power when Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, was ousted in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

The attacks have increased the suffering of the Iraqi people, who face electricity shortages, kidnappings, erratic fuel supplies and the ever present threat of violent death.

Samir accuses US

In New York, Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Samir Sumaidaie, accused U.S. Marines of killing his unarmed 21-year-old cousin in apparent "cold blood" during operations in Anbar province. He demanded an investigation and punishment for the perpetrators.

The U.S. military said it had launched an investigation that could take several weeks.

Swiss authorities, meanwhile, said a dual Swiss-Iraqi national was shot and killed in Iraq. Swiss media reports said the victim, identified only as S.J., was accidentally shot by a U.S. soldier but the Swiss Foreign Ministry would not confirm details of his death.

On Friday, Iraqi soldiers found a car bomb factory with a vehicle rigged to explode at an automotive repair shop and they seized 45 roadside bombs at a separate location in Ramadi, the capital of the volatile western Anbar province.

A mortar attack Friday sparked a fire that forced authorities to shut down a water plant, leaving millions of Baghdad residents with dry taps as temperatures soar above 100 degrees, Iraqi officials said. Just a day earlier, the mayor of the capital threatened to quit because of mounting infrastructure problems — including a lack of clean drinking water.

The blaze Friday at a power station north of Baghdad cut off electricity to a water plant serving much of the capital, officials said. The fire halted all distribution from the waterworks, and project director Jassim Mohammed said repairs could take three days.●