Car Bomb Kills 15 Iraqi Police
A man wearing a police uniform drove a car bomb inside the headquarters of police in Saddam Hussein's hometown north of Baghdad on Thursday, setting off a massive explosion that killed 15 police and wounded 22 others, police and witnesses said.
At least four other police were killed in separate attacks across the insurgent-wracked country, including another suicide car bomb assault on a police convoy in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the capital.
In the capital, gunmen opened fire on a bakery in eastern Baghdad, killing two people and wounding a third, police said. Several blasts echoed through the city at midday. Their cause was not immediately known.
The violence came a day after interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi announced he was forming a coalition to try to hold onto his post in the next government and block the candidate of the dominant Shiite political alliance. Kurdish parties also weighed in with demands for top posts, setting up a possible showdown over the role of religion in a new Iraq.
In other developments:
The blast in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, occurred at one of the station's busiest times, when dozens of policemen were arriving to relieve colleagues who'd been working all night, police Col. Saad Daham said.
"He waited until the shift change, then he exploded the car," Daham said, adding the aim was "to kill as many as possible."
Daham said the attacker was able to slip into the station undetected because he was wearing a police lieutenant's uniform. He blamed guards at the station's gates for allowing the bomber to enter without checking his papers or searching his vehicle.
Twenty cars were set ablaze after the massive blast, sending clouds of smoke into the sky. An Associated Press photographer on the scene saw at least 10 charred bodies laying on the ground, which was splattered with pools of blood and bits of human flesh.
Several ambulances raced to the blast site, ferrying casualties to a local hospital. U.S. troops sealed off the area, and set up checkpoints and searched vehicles across the city.
Daham put the toll from the blast at 15 dead and 22 wounded. Khalil Ibrahim of Tikrit hospital said all the dead and injured were policemen.
Insurgents have relentlessly attacked U.S. and Iraqi security forces with car bombs throughout the past year in a campaign of violence that's included kidnappings, beheadings and assassinations of top officials.
Ending the violence will be a top priority for the new government, once it takes office after parties who won seats in the national assembly negotiate who will get top posts.
Allawi's call for an inclusive coalition that would attract minority Sunni Arabs who form the core of the insurgency came as support for Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the leading Shiite candidate, began slipping in his United Iraq Alliance.
One day after al-Jaafari, 58, was nominated for the post of prime minister by the clergy-backed alliance, a Shiite political group that supports his one-time challenger, Ahmad Chalabi, threatened to withdraw its support.
The Shiite Political Council demanded that the alliance make amends after forcing Chalabi to end his pursuit of the prime minister's post by nominating one of the council's members for the largely ceremonial post of Iraqi president.
But the Kurdish coalition controlling 75 of the 275 seats in the National Assembly has long taken for granted that the alliance, which has 140 seats, will give the presidency to one of their leaders — Jalal Talabani. Allawi's ticket won 40 seats.
"Regarding the nomination for the presidential post, no names were presented officially and we are running nonofficial discussions with all parties, especially with the Kurdish officials here in Baghdad," al-Jaafari spokesman Abdul Razaq Al-Kadhimi said.
The Kurds also issued a separate list of demands that include reinforcing autonomy in their northern provinces.
A two-thirds majority of the assembly is required for approval of the presidency — the first step in a complicated process of filling the top positions. What this boils down to is that for al-Jaafari to become prime minister, he must win the approval of his own Shiite alliance, including Chalabi's supporters, and an additional 44 legislators.
Much is at stake.
The next prime minister will oversee the drafting of a new constitution, and some fear al-Jaafari could lead Iraq toward an Islamic theocracy, or even a strictly sectarian Shiite one. Allawi, Chalabi and the Kurds oppose efforts to codify or legislate religion.