A series of deadly suicide bomb attacks, explosions and drive-by shootings has claimed at least 40 Iraqi lives in the four days since Saddam Hussein was captured, raising the insurgency to a new intensity.
A volley of incidents on Wednesday saw assailants kill a policemen in the northern city of Mosul, while US forces killed three attackers as they tried to mount a drive-by shooting there. In Baghdad meanwhile, at least 10 people died on Wedensday when a fuel tanker exploded at a busy traffic junction in Baghdad after colliding with a minibus.
Iraqi police and bystanders said it was the latest in a spate of suicide attacks, but US officers said it was a simple traffic accident. Accident or no, the grisly spectacle generated fresh anxiety in the wake of an upsurge in violence that has coincided with Saddam’s capture near his home town of Tikrit on Saturday.
Although there are still a significant number of attacks on US troops in Iraq every day, the rate of operations has declined. Instead, attacks have dramatically increased against Iraqis who work with the Americans, particularly policemen.
US commanders said they expected a rise in indiscriminate attacks immediately after Saddam’s capture, but hoped this would begin to fade away.
One member of Iraq’s governing council said yesterday that Saddam was still being held in the Baghdad area, despite reports that he may have been moved to Qatar, where the US central command is based. Other important detainees from the ousted regime are being held at a large US military compound at Baghdad airport. ”He’s still in greater Baghdad,” said Mouwafak al-Rubaie. ”Maybe he’ll stay there until he stands trial. God willing, he will be tried in Iraq in public by an Iraqi court.”
Washington has said that the CIA was leading the interrogation of the Iraqi leader, but it is unclear how much information he has volunteered.
Yesterday’s tanker blast was particularly horrific. Parts of the vehicle’s yellow cab were scattered for several hundred metres in all directions.
Some witnesses reported seeing shots fired at the vehicle before it collided with the minibus, sending up a massive fireball, which left at least 20 others injured.
Iraqi police suggested it could have been en route for a suicide mission at a frequently-targeted police station in the city. Witnesses were convinced it was terrorism. ”This is absolute terrorism,” said Wajdi al-Samarrai, the owner of a mechanic’s shop. ”This can only have been done by someone who hates Arabs and hates Islam.” But the US military later said no explosives had been found and insisted it was an accident.
”Our ordnance experts found no evidence of explosives,” said Captain Jason Beck. ”It was not consistent with a car bomb.”
By a wall on a pavement opposite the wreckage, a group of young men had gathered up scraps of flesh and buried them in holes in the ground, covered with rocks.
On the wall they had written small notices in black paint. ”Mixed body parts,” read one. ”The driver of a pick-up,” read another. ”God is the greatest. These are the martyrs of a Bush operation,” said a third, reflecting the view of some in the crowd that the US had somehow been responsible.
”Why are the Iraqi police and the American soldiers not caring about the remains of the dead?” said Ali Jassim (20) who dug one of the makeshift graves with his bare hands. ”We are Muslims and these body parts must be buried.” Like many in the crowd, he could not accept that the bombers had been Iraqis. ”This is happening because of the open borders around our country, people are coming in to do this.”
In a car bomb blast on Sunday, 19 people, including 17 policemen, died in an attack on the police station in Khaldiya, 80km west of Baghdad. Two more car bombs at police stations in the capital followed on Monday, claiming another eight lives.
The US last night reduced its diplomatic presence in Saudi Arabia by authorising the departure of non-essential US diplomats and the families of all US officials ”due to ongoing security concerns”. – Guardian Unlimited Â