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Feb. 23, 2004, 9:13PM
Bomber kills 7 policemen in Iraq
Up to 52 others injured in third attack against Kurds this month
Associated Press
KIRKUK, Iraq -- A suicide bomber exploded a white Oldsmobile outside a police
station in this northern city Monday, killing at least seven policemen and
wounding more than four dozen other people, including children.
The bombing, the third suicide attack against Kurds in Iraq's north this month,
occurred as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Baghdad to check on the
state of readiness of Iraq's security forces, which have born the brunt of such
attacks.
The U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, said after meeting with Rumsfeld that
Iraq has seen "a real step up" by "professional terrorists from al-Qaida and
Ansar al-Islam in conducting suicide attacks."
Kirkuk has seen rising ethnic tensions as Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen compete for
control of the city, located in one of the world's richest oil-producing
regions, 180 miles north of Baghdad.
The bomber detonated his 1990 car as police were changing shifts at Rahimawa
station, said the station's chief, Col. Adel Ibrahim.
Col. Thamer Abdul-Masih said the bomber's car followed policemen driving to the
station in a Kurdish neighborhood and "ran into the last car in the convoy and
exploded." U.S. military spokesmen in Baghdad said Iraqi police fired on the car
but were unable to stop it.
Seven policemen and the bomber were killed and 52 people were wounded, Police
Chief Torhan Yousef said.
The blast devastated nearby buildings and injured civilians in a passing bus.
"I fell on the floor of the bus," said Awen Aras, 11, as she lay in a hospital
bed, her leg in a cast. "Everything was flying around me after I heard a very
loud explosion. There was a big fire and policemen carried me off the bus."
More than 300 people -- mostly Iraqis -- have been killed in suicide bombings
against Iraqi security forces this year. Just this month, suicide bombers have
struck Kurdish political offices in Irbil, a police station in Iskandariyah, an
army recruiting station in Baghdad and a Polish-run military garrison in Hillah.
The United States intends to transfer power to the Iraqis on June 30, but its
plans have caused controversies on several fronts. Leaders of the country's
Shiite Muslim majority, long repressed under deposed dictator Saddam Hussein,
demand quick elections to establish a government.
The United Nations backed the U.S. stance that elections are impossible by June
30 but said Monday that a vote could be held by January 2005 if planning begins
at once. The report by U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi also said tensions between
Sunni and Shiite Muslims were "becoming entrenched and inter-communal politics
more polarized."
Bremer welcomed the U.N. report, calling it a "constructive contribution."
"We share the U.N.'s view on the importance of direct elections in Iraq as soon
as possible," Bremer said. "The report makes clear that we must stand firm in
handing sovereignty to the Iraqi people on June 30, and we will meet that
milestone."
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