14 handcuffed bodies found

2006-05-03 11:27

Baghdad - A suicide bomber attacked a police department in Fallujah on Wednesday, killing five Iraqis, police said.

Police also found the bodies of 14 Iraqi men in Baghdad who apparently were the latest victims of a wave of sectarian violence involving death squads that kidnap civilians, torture them in captivity and dump their bodies on city streets.

In Fallujah, the police department was being used as a recruitment centre for new police officers when the suicide attack occurred, said police 1st Lieutenant Omar Ahmed. Three of the fatalities were applying for jobs and two were policemen, he said.

The suicide bomber targeted the main gate of the police department, where everyone is searched before entering the building, Ahmed said.

Fallujah, 65km west of Baghdad, is located in Anbar Province, where many of Iraq's Sunni-led insurgent groups are based. Some of the worst terrorist attacks and battles between insurgents and US forces in Iraq occur in Anbar province.

On Tuesday, Anbar Governor Maamoun Sami Rashid al-Alwani was treated for minor injuries after a bomb attack on his convoy near Ramadi, 115km west of Baghdad, a doctor said.

Iraqi police first said the attack involved a roadside bomb that killed three of al-Alwani's bodyguards and wounded four, but the US military said on Wednesday that the explosion was caused by a suicide attacker driving a car. The military said 10 Iraqi civilians were killed and five of the governor's bodyguards wounded.

The 14 bodies found near Baghdad's main amusement park Wednesday were men in their 20s and 30s, who had been handcuffed, tied up and shot in the head, said police 1st Lieutenant Thaeir Mahmoud.

Elsewhere, a mortar round was fired at Camp Echo, a military camp in southern Iraq where Polish forces are based, said Iraqi army Captain Ali Hakim.

No casualties were immediately reported, but the mortar appeared to explode inside the camp and it was immediately sealed off by Polish forces, Hakim said.

Poland, a US ally, has about 900 troops in Iraq.

- AP