Suicide Truck Bomber Strikes Iraqi Police
A suicide truck bomber struck an Iraqi police agency in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing at least seven people and wounding 50, police said, while hundreds marched in the streets as a funeral was held for four people reportedly killed in overnight clashes in a predominantly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad.
Iraqi police in the area said fighting in the predominantly Shiite Fidhiliyah area on the Baghdad's outskirts broke out after a U.S. military convoy came under attack following a raid on the local offices of Muqtada al-Sadr, the anti-American cleric whose Mahdi Army militia has recently stepped up attacks on American troops.
The U.S. military said an American patrol came under fire late Friday from small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades from the al-Sadr office and called for air and ground support. Spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said no Americans were killed or wounded, but he did not have immediate information on Iraqi casualties. "We're still looking into the incident," he said.
Associated Press Television video footage shot early Sunday showed a low-flying Apache helicopter firing flares as several hundred people, including teenagers and children, were gathered around a smoldering Humvee below.
Residents said a fire broke out in a residential house from a pile of straw used by local residents to feed animals, after U.S. helicopters dropped flares in the area.
A local resident told AP Television that U.S. troops had come on Sunday to "haul their damaged humvee out of the area."
"The damaged humvee was opposite to our house, so their aircraft shelled the house. They towed their humvee and fled," the resident said.
AP Television video footage shot on Sunday showed firemen tending to a fire at the scene.
Garver said the flares were fired automatically as part of a self-defense system for the helicopter. He said the flares, which are designed to divert heat-seeking missiles and other anti-aircraft weapons, usually burn out before they hit the ground but these were still burning because the helicopter was flying at such a low altitude.
"Those are not launched by the crew," he said. "When the helicopter receives a signal that it is being targeted by a radar, it launches those flares in self-defense against a perceived threat."
Police and witnesses said those killed and wounded in the fighting were Iraqis — they included bystanders caught in the crossfire, but did not know how many were al-Sadr loyalists.
U.S. troops stormed the al-Sadr offices and detained seven men, they said.
Sheikh Mohammed al-Hilfi, an al-Sadr representative from the office, said the clashes broke out late Friday after a raid on the office, which doubles as a mosque.
He said seven people were killed and 21 wounded, while local police officials put the casualty figure at five killed and 19 wounded. The officials said those killed were Iraqis and included bystanders caught in the crossfire, while 16 other men were detained.
Hundreds of men chanted as they carried the wooden coffins draped in Iraqi flags of four of the people reportedly killed in the melee.
Al-Hilfi accused the Americans of using the flares from the helicopters to disperse the crowd so they could recover the remains of the charred Humvee.
Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia fought U.S. forces for much of 2004. More recently, the U.S. military has repeatedly blamed the militia for the death of American soldiers in deadly roadside bombs it says are provided by Iran.
The explosion in Tikrit, which occurred about 10:30 a.m., devastated a building housing the highway police directorate in the Albu Ajil village on the eastern outskirts of ousted leader Saddam Hussein's hometown, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns. Tikrit is 80 miles north of Baghdad.
The attacker detonated his payload after smashing into a blast wall, flattening a small reception building and causing heavy damage to the main two-story building just 20 yards away, the officer said, adding that most of the seven killed and 50 wounded were police.
Police and rescuers dug through the rubble in a desperate search for survivors or bodies of more victims. About 60 vehicles inside the compound also were destroyed.
"It was a huge blast, my house was damaged," said Khalaf Eidan, a 45-year-old shopkeeper who lives nearby. "I thank God that none of my children were hurt."
The blast was the deadliest of a series of attacks and other violence that killed at least 26 people, many targeting Iraqi police as militants continue to hammer the country's shaky security forces. The terror campaign against Iraqi troops and police appears designed to blunt U.S. progress in creating a stable local force so the Americans can go home.
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