Double massacre of Iraqi cops
2005-02-07 12:32
Mosul, Iraq - A suicide bomber lured a group of Iraq policemen into a trap in Mosul on Monday, killing 11, while another eight people were killed in a car bomb attack on a police headquarters.
The double strike on police targets came just after the US military reported that one US soldier had been killed and two others wounded on Sunday in a roadside bomb attack north of Baghdad.
Iraqi police were waiting to collect their wages at the main hospital in Mosul, a Sunni insurgent bastion, when the suicide bomber struck, said police colonel Saad Aziz.
"The bomber was wearing a long coat. He called the young men over to him to gather around him and he set off the bomb," said Aziz.
The victims were among police who were to be paid on Monday in three rooms in the Mosul hospital complex. The relatively high wage is one reason the police have been able to find a steady stream of recruits despite the insurgent threat.
"Eleven police were killed and six others wounded in the explosion," said police captain Kassem Mohammad.
A statement posted on the Internet said the attack was carried out by "a lion from the martyrs brigade of the Al-Qaeda Group of Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers". This is understood to mean followers of Iraq's most wanted man, Islamic extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but the authenticity of the claim could not be independently confirmed.
A car bomb in Baquba targeted the Diyala provincial police headquarters where a group of men were in line to join the police.
"A car bomb exploded in front of one of the entrances to Diyala police headquarters slightly before 11am (08:00 GMT)," said police official Mohammad Hassan.
Ambulances raced to the scene to handle the victims and a doctor at Baquba hospital said eight bodies had arrived there. Police said 14 people were injured.
"A car drove towards us before exploding," said Mahmud Shaker, who was wounded in the attack, from his hospital bed. Shaker said several men were waiting at the entrance to sign up to join the police.
- AFP