BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber slammed a truck loaded with explosives into sand barriers outside a Baghdad police station yesterday, killing at least 22 persons and wounding 30, police said. Separate attacks killed a U.S. soldier and a Marine, the U.S. military said.
The attempted attack on the Rashad police station in the eastern neighborhood of Mashtal occurred at about 2:50 p.m. during a blinding sandstorm. Security barricades prevented the bomber from reaching the station, but the huge blast destroyed two dozen cars and damaged nearby shops.
The U.S. military, citing initial Iraqi police reports, said 40 persons were killed, but police said they were not certain from where that figure emerged.
It was the deadliest attack in Iraq since a bomber blew himself up near a Shi’ite mosque July 16 in the central city of Musayyib, igniting a fuel tanker and killing nearly 100 people.
Elsewhere, gunmen killed the leader of the city council in the insurgent-riddled Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police said. Council Chairman Taha al-Hinderah and a companion were fatally shot as they walked in the Albu Rahman neighborhood last night, police Capt. Laith Mohammed said.
The U.S. military said a Marine was killed Saturday when a roadside bomb exploded near the desert town of Rutbah, 220 miles west of Baghdad. The U.S. command said the Marine was assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2 of the 2nd Marine Division, but the victim’s name was not released.
Yesterday, one U.S. soldier was killed and two were wounded in a mortar attack near Balad, north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The soldiers were assigned to Task Force Liberty.
In Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city, insurgents emptied fuel from two tanker trucks on the Muthanna Bridge across the Tigris River and set it on fire, police said. Two persons were wounded in clashes that followed.
Six police officers also were killed yesterday in scattered attacks in Baghdad and Kirkuk, officials said. Gunmen in Kirkuk also killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded six persons, police said.
Members of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s bloc yesterday threatened to walk out of the committee that is drafting a new constitution.
Committee member Adnan al-Janabi, who also is part of Mr. Allawi’s eight-member bloc in parliament, criticized the way the commission dealt with Sunni members’ decision to suspend their participation in drafting the new charter amid security concerns.
“Their demands and suspension of membership should have been studied and taken in a way that reassures them and brings them to participate in the draft constitution that we want to be agreed upon by all Iraqis,” he said.
Mr. al-Janabi, who also is a spokesman for Mr. Allawi’s group, said the secular bloc’s continued participation remains in question.
“Our continuation in the committee drafting the constitution has become dependent on getting clarifications to what we have asked earlier,” Mr. al-Janabi said.
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