Deluge of car bombs kills 54
2005-05-11 08:39
Baghdad - At least 54 people were killed in a string of blasts in Iraq on Wednesday as US troops battled insurgents in the lawless western hinterland during a massive operation against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's network.
At least four explosions went off within about an hour, in the deadliest day since a surge in violence that marked the formation of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's government earlier this month.
A first car bomb ripped through a busy bus station in the northern city of Tikrit, killing 31 people and wounding 70, a police officer said.
A curfew was slapped on Tikrit following the blast, one of the deadliest witnessed in the hometown of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
A suicide bomber also struck an army recruitment centre in the town of Hawijah, southwest of the northern oil city of Kirkuk, killing 20 people.
"A suicide bomber wearing a belt of explosives mingled with recruits outside the centre before blowing himself up," Kirkuk police chief General Turhan Yussef told AFP.
Forty-six people, mostly police recruits were killed in a similar attack in the northern city of Arbil on May 4.
Insurgents also detonated two car bombs in Baghdad, one of which targeted a police station in the restive southern district of Dura, killing three people, an interior ministry official.
Another car bomb went in a western neighbourhood of the capital but there no immediate casualty figures.
Car bombs have been the weapon of choice for insurgents who stepped up their attacks in recent weeks, killing close to 400 people since the start of the month.
The past few days were also one of the deadliest stretches in months for US troops, with 15 casualties between Saturday and Monday.
Security sources said rebels kidnapped the governor of the restive western Sunni province of Al-Anbar, Nawaf Raja Farhan al-Mahalawi.
Officials said insurgents with ties to Zarqawi's network were using the governor as bargaining chip against US troops pressed on with "Operation Matador", one of the largest post-Saddam military operations in Iraq.
"There are reports that these people are in uniforms, in some cases are wearing protected vests, and there's some suspicion that their training exceeds that of what we have seen with other engagements further east," said US Lieutenant General James Conway, operations director of the Joint Staff.