Bombers blitz Iraqi forces, over 50 dead in attacks
'Pakistan Times' Foreign Desk

BAGHDAD (Iraq): Bombers and gunmen killed more than 50 people in a wave of attacks around Iraq on Tuesday as insurgents pursued their campaign against the security forces of the embattled coalition government.

In the bloodiest incident, a massive roadside bomb ripped apart a bus carrying Iraqi soldiers from Baghdad to the northern city of Mosul, killing at least 23 and wounding 20 more, military headquarters said.

This attack followed a blast in the centre of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-packed car into a crowd of police and soldiers outside a bank, killing at least 10 of them and four bystanders.

Shortly afterwards, another suicide bomber blew up a vehicle in Palestine Street in the east of the city, wounding one member of the security forces, police said.

Four electricity board employees were killed and four more wounded when their minibus was sprayed with gunfire in central Baghdad.

A car bomb also exploded in the violently divided city of Muqdadiyah, 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Baghdad, killing seven people and wounding 10, police said.

Farther north in Kirkuk -- an ethnically mixed city and a centre of the oil industry -- two policemen were killed and two more, including a senior officer, were wounded in a roadside bombing, police said.

Two coalition soldiers -- one British and one American -- were also killed, their respective headquarters said.

In Tikrit, Lieutenant Colonel Rabae Al-Kidawi said the army bus was hit about 20 kilometres (13 miles) north of the city, Saddam's hometown.

"The soldiers were travelling from Baghdad to Mosul on the highway to take up their duty there," he said. Iraq's military headquarters put the toll at 23 dead and 20 wounded.

In Baghdad, troops had arrived at the al-Rafidein bank to collect their wages when the bomber struck, witnesses said.

Bombings and Shootings

An earlier report had said that bombings and shootings across Iraq killed at least 60 people Tuesday, including 24 who were blasted in a bus.

The worst carnage occurred near the northern industrial city of Beiji where a bus carrying 24 people was hit by a roadside bomb, said Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari. He said all on board died.

Al-Askari confirmed that many among the passengers were soldiers, but said he did not know their number.

Following the blast, a curfew was imposed in Beiji, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad.

A few hours later, a bomb-laden car blew up near a bank in the once-fashionable Karradah neighborhood of Baghdad, killing at least 14 people and injuring 37, said police Lt. Col.

The blast set several cars on fire. Dismembered bodies were strewn on the sidewalk.

In other violence Tuesday, a car bomb targeting a police patrol killed one policeman and six civilians in Muqdadiyah in northern Iraq, said the joint Iraqi-US military coordination centre.

A roadside bomb missed a car belonging to the Ministry of Electricity, killing one civilian and wounding another in Zayouna in eastern Baghdad. In Karma area, west of Baghdad, two insurgents were killed when a roadside bomb they were planting on a highway detonated prematurely.

Gunmen in two cars raided a mosque west of Bahgdad, killing a cleric and his brother.

A suicide attack was foiled when soldiers fired at a car trying to slam into an army convoy in Baghdad. The car exploded causing no casualties, but the driver was killed.

A civilian was killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern town of Mosul, said police Col. Abdul Karim Ahmed Khalaf.●