Truck Bomb Kills Up to 40 As Iraqis Queue Up at Police Station

A suicide bomber in a truck laden with 500lbs of explosives killed up to 40 people outside a police station in Baghdad yesterday, the US military said, citing Iraqi police reports. There was some confusion over the death toll; police and interior ministry sources said that 22 people had been killed and 25 wounded.

The blast left a deep crater in the road and the wreckage of a vehicle smouldered for more than an hour after the explosion.

In another incident, an American soldier was killed and two were wounded during a mortar attack near Balad, north of Baghdad. The names of the victims were not released but a US statement said they were assigned to Task Force Liberty.

The bloodshed came amid growing tensions over a committee drafting a constitution which is seen as vital for drawing Arab Sunnis, who form the bulk of the Iraqi insurgency, into a peaceful political process.

The suicide attack was the deadliest since a bomber blew himself up next to a fuel truck on 16 July, causing a huge fire that killed 98 people in a town south of Baghdad. Militants have stepped up suicide attacks in a campaign to topple the US-backed government. There have been more than 20 blasts in the past 10 days.

‘The car bomber made a deliberate decision to attack the police station,’ said Major Russell Goemaere, a spokesman for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team. ‘The terrorists see the improved Iraqi police services as a threat to their operations.’

Despite that positive interpretation, a senior US military official in Washington offered a more cautious view of the ability of Iraqi forces in a report released last week. ‘Only a small number of Iraqi security forces are taking on the insurgents and terrorists by themselves,’ said an assessment provided to the US Senate by General Peter Pace, vice-chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The Iraqi government hopes to give Sunni Arabs more power in a bid to defuse the insurgency. But Sunni officials on the constitution-drafting committee, who walked out after a Sunni member and an observer were shot dead last week, say they will not return unless their demands, are met. REUTERS