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Northern Iraq Blast Kills 3 U.S. Troops
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By VIJAY JOSHI, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers Saturday when it ripped through their convoy near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, while a car bomb outside a police station in Mosul left nine people dead and 45 others wounded.
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The homemade bomb exploded as a 4th Infantry Division convoy passed by about 25 miles southwest of Kirkuk, killing the three soldiers, the U.S. military said. Their names were not immediately available. Kirkuk, a major oil producing area, is about 60 miles north of Tikrit.
In Mosul, Iraq third largest city, witnesses said what a appeared to be a suicide attacker drove through a security barricade in front of the police station before detonating explosives outside the building. This could not be independently confirmed.
Saturday was a pay day and the police station was crowded with staff at the time of the midmorning attack, said police Lt. Mohammed Fadil.
Witnesses saw severed limbs and decapitated bodies in the bloodied street in front of the police station. Windows of buildings were shattered and plumes of smoke could be seen in the area.
Staff at the Republican Hospital in Mosul said nine people including civilians and policemen were killed and 45 others were injured.
The attack occurred a day before the start of the four-day Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice. The feast, a major Muslim holiday, commemorates the Quranic account of God allowing the patriarch Abraham to sacrifice a sheep instead of his son Ismail. The Old Testament account says another son, Isaac, was spared.
A U.S. military spokesman said: "We are aware of a report of an IED (improvised explosive device) or a car bomb that exploded near the Mosul police station this morning."
Al-Jazeera television network said the pieces of the car apparently carrying the bomb were found 300 yards away. At least five nearby cars were damaged.
It said no American troops were in the vicinity at the time of the blast.
One policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the blast was so powerful that there were casualties not only on the street but also inside the building.
The explosion shattered the vehicle, pieces of which were burning on the street, filling the air with acrid black smoke. Stunned survivors stumbled down the street, their clothing soaked in blood. Smoldering body parts lay on the littered pavement.
American soldiers in full combat gear rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area.
The police station is next to the University of Mosul campus. Mosul is about 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.
Police stations have been the frequent targets of insurgents fighting U.S. troops and their Iraqi allies since the fall of Saddam Hussein regime last April. Many of the attacks have been carried out through car bombings and roadside bombs that have killed scores of civilians.
In the deadliest insurgent attack since the capture of Saddam on Dec. 13, a suicide car bombing at the gates of the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Baghdad left at least 31 people dead and more than 120 injured.
Also Saturday, a bomb exploded under a senior police officer's car parked in front of his house in Baghdad, slightly injuring five children in the street.
"We woke up frightened when we heard a big explosion," said Col. Adnan Radeef al-Ani, who heads a quick response field. He said the bomb was apparently triggered by a timer.
"Maybe I was targeted because I am working with the Americans," he told The Associated Press.
In Tokyo, Japanese lawmakers early Saturday approved sending troops for a humanitarian mission in southern Iraq, a decision stalled until the last minute by concerns over the level of violence there.
The approval in the 480-seat lower house saved Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi the embarrassment of having to cancel a mission already under way.
Advance teams have already been sent to Kuwait and Iraq, and Koizumi has ordered in sea, land and air forces — part of his administration's goal of raising Japan's profile on the world stage by contributing international peacekeepers.
A ceremony Sunday will mark a final farewell for soldiers who will form the main contingent of the 1,000-strong noncombat mission in Iraq, the first Japanese troops in a combat zone since World War II.
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Plumes of smoke rise into the air from the front of an Iraqi police station in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul after a car bomb explosion Saturday Jan. 31, 2004. Witnesses and hospital staff in Mosul said that a car bomb exploded outside a police station killing at least nine people and injuring 45. (AP Photo/Karam Hussein) |
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Prayers going out for the friends and loved ones of our fallen 4ID Soldiers.
