100 Die In Iraq Bombings

Follows Discovery Of Insurgent's Letter Asking Help From Al Qaeda

(CBS/AP)  Up to 100 people have been killed in two bombings in Iraq over the two days since the U.S. military said it intercepted a letter insurgents to al Qaeda depicting a "race against time" to wreck a planned American handover.

On Wednesday, a suicide attacker blew up a car packed with explosives in a crowd of hundreds of Iraqis waiting outside a Baghdad army recruiting center, killing 47 people. A day earlier, a suicide bombing against a police station south of the capital killed up to 53 people.

A campaign to accelerate attacks against Iraqi "collaborators" and Shiite Muslims was outlined in a document sent to al Qaeda leaders that was intercepted by the U.S. military.

The letter was believed to have been written by a Jordanian militant in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who said he sought to spark a Sunni-Shiite civil war in a last-ditch attempt to wreck the handover.

The U.S. military announced a $10 million bounty for al-Zarqawi, Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack, Jr., commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, said.

In other developments:

A U.N. team in Iraq tried to work out differences between Iraqi factions on how to pick a new government ahead of the planned transfer of sovereignty.

In the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded when a U.S. convoy passed. An SUV carrying coalition civilian personnel was damaged, and the U.S. military said one soldier was slightly injured.

Gunmen firing from a car attacked an office of the Democratic Assyrian Party in Mosul, injuring one security guard, according to party member Napoleon Fatou.

Kuwaiti lawmakers asked for a parliamentary probe of alleged overcharging and profiteering in an Iraq fuel contract between state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and Altanmia Marketing Company, the Kuwaiti supplier of Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root.

Iraq was formally approved as an observer to the World Trade Organization — a first step to gaining membership in the body.

Britain's main opposition Conservative Party accused the government of failing to properly scrutinize intelligence on Iraq after a top ranking minister disclosed he was unaware of an important fact until after the war. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told lawmakers he did not know until June that an intelligence claim that Iraq could deploy its weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes related only to battlefield weapons, such as shells and mortars, not long-range missiles.

The intercepted letter to al Qaeda said insurgents must act quickly to prevent the handover of power to Iraqi police and military forces since Iraqi fighters would be less willing to attack them.

"The noose is beginning to tighten around the necks of the mujahedeen, and the future is frightening with the future deployment of more troops and police," he wrote.

There was no immediate indication who was behind Wednesday's attack but Col. Ralph Baker of the 1st Armored Division said it resembled "the operating technique" of al Qaeda or Ansar al-Islam, a radical Muslim group linked to Osama bin Laden's terror network.

The 7:25 a.m. blast tore into would-be army volunteers waiting outside the recruitment center less than a mile from the heavily fortified Green Zone, where the U.S. administration has its headquarters. Baker said a man driving a white 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Sierra detonated about 300 to 500 pounds of explosives.

Ghasan Sameer, 32, an officer in the new Iraqi army who also was wounded, said the car drove into the crowd and ran over some people before exploding.

The recruitment center was surrounded by barbed wire and had sandbagged posts in front of it. But around 300 Iraqis were gathered outside its locked gates, waiting for it to open, and were completely exposed. Some were lined up to join the military, others waiting to depart for a training camp in Jordan.

"I used to serve in the old Iraqi army, and I wanted to rejoin because I love my country, the great Iraq. There is no safety or security and I wanted to protect the people," said one of the wounded, Abbas Hussein, 39. "We were all happy and excited."

At Karkh Hospital, relatives outside shouted the names of missing loved ones to officials inside.

The morgue's two refrigerators were stacked with bodies wrapped in blood-soaked sheets. Only one was working, and the room reeked with the smell of the dead.

The Baghdad attack could be part of "the ongoing pattern of intimidation we've seen of late," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the military's deputy operations chief in Baghdad, told The Associated Press in an e-mail interview. "We have stated numerous times that in the lead-up to governance, there could be an uptick in the violence."

The Iraqi Governing Council said the two attacks aim to "destabilize Iraq and impede the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis. They want to keep Iraq occupied and kill our hopes of establishing a democratic system in the country. … Our determination to proceed with our plans is undiminished."

Wednesday's was at least the ninth vehicle bombing in Iraq this year. U.S. forces have been preparing the Iraqi police and military to take a larger role in battling the anti-U.S. insurgency that has been blamed on supporters of ousted leader Saddam Hussein and foreign Islamic militants.

Tuesday's suicide bombing in the predominantly Shiite Muslim town of Iskandariyah, about 30 miles south of Baghdad, reduced parts of the police station to rubble and damaged nearby buildings.

"Iskandariyah is right on the line between Sunni and Shiite, so the attack there might be trying to foment some kind of civil war," Swannack said.

The deadliest bombing so far was in the northern city of Irbil on Feb. 1, when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at two Kurdish party offices celebrating a Muslim holiday, killing at least 109 people.

Since Jan. 1, at least 261 Iraqi civilians have been killed in major suicide attacks or car bombings, according to an AP tally based on reports issued by the U.S. military or Iraqi police.

©MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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