At least 59 people die as rebel attacks rock Iraq

An unidentified woman cries after identifying a pair of shoes lying at the site of a huge explosion outside a police station in Haifa Street in Baghdad as those of her son yesterday. At least 47 people were killed and 114 wounded as the blast ripped through scores of people gathered there hoping to apply to join the police force. PHOTO: AP

Statements on an Islamic Web site claim the group headed by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was responsible for two major attacks in Iraq yesterday that killed a total of more than 59 people.

One signed "Tawhid and Jihad group," said: "Thanks to God alone, a lion from the Brigades of Those Seeking Martyrdom succeeded in attacking the center of volunteers for the renegade police apparatus."

It provided no details on the attack, but appeared to refer to a massive car bombing outside Baghdad's main police headquarters yesterday, in which at least 47 people were killed.

Another people, all but one of them a policemen, were killed in a roadside shooting north of the capital, amid a sharp resurgence of violence across the country.

The devastating Baghdad explosion occurred in a bustling district at the end of Haifa Street, where witnesses said dozens of young men were queueing up at the police station, which doubles as a recruitment center.

Although attacks on police are common in insurgency-wracked Iraq, the latest bombing came two days after bitter clashes between US troops and insurgents in Haifa Street area, considered a bastion of loyalists to former president Saddam Hussein.

The explosives-rigged vehicle blew up, sending shards of shrapnel tearing through the area, littering body parts everywhere and leaving pools of congealed blood smeared on the pavement.

In the hours after the explosion at 10am, the health ministry reported at least 47 dead and 114 wounded as doctors struggled to cope with the casualties.

Two Iraqis were seriously wounded in a near simultaneous explosion not far from the planning ministry, the health ministry said.

Police Haider Hamid said the car exploded outside the main entrance of the al-Karkh police center, but the building escaped with only minor damage.

"More than 200 people were queuing outside the main gate. I came with six friends and now I'm alone. They've gone, all of them," said aspiring police recruit Nabeel Mohammed, slightly wounded in the blast.

Anguished frantically turned over ID cards or inspected dozens of pairs of shoes lined up on the roadside by police near the crater gouged in the ground by the blast, for news of loved ones.

Shrapnel a row of simple stores, including a coffee shop, sending shattered glass, pieces of flesh and twisted debris everywhere. Outside one smashed shop was a pool table where children often played billiards.

Interior Falah al-Naqib toured the scene of the attack and blamed the bombing on "Arab groups" as angry men cursed US President George W. Bush.

"These are planned operations aimed at killing citizens in Baghdad. Probably Arab groups are behind such attacks. We will crush these terrorists," Naqib told journalists.

In Baquba, north of Baghdad, 11 Iraqi policemen and one civilian were killed in gun attack in the city, where 70 people perished in a suicide bombing outside a police station on July 28, police said.

Also See Story:
Fresh claims of abuse worry US