30 Iraqis Slain in Baghdad
BAGHDAD — Nearly simultaneous attacks against two police stations and a Shiite Muslim mosque killed at least 30 Iraqis here Friday, ending the relative lull in violence in the capital that had followed U.S.-led offensives against insurgents in Fallouja and northern Babil province.
A third police station, within the compound of the Ministry of Housing and Construction, was targeted this morning by a massive car bomb. Casualty figures were not immediately available, but witnesses reported seeing several wounded after the 9:30 a.m. blast, which rocked buildings miles away.
A group claiming to represent Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi claimed responsibility on an Islamist website for one of Friday's police station attacks, in which 11 carloads of insurgents stormed a headquarters near the Baghdad airport. A dozen Iraqi officers were killed and five wounded, hospital officials said.
The claim, which could not be verified, made no mention of a separate suicide car bombing near a Baghdad mosque that killed 17 civilians, including some worshipers leaving morning prayers.
If Zarqawi devised the police station attack, it would mark his deadliest strike against Iraqi security forces in Baghdad since U.S. troops invaded Fallouja on Nov. 8 to wrest control of the Sunni-dominated city from insurgents and capture him.
The station assault began shortly after dawn Friday, when nearly 50 insurgents surrounded the Amil precinct building in southwest Baghdad, peppering it with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire.
"We heard heavy machine-gun fire and RPGs showering us from every direction," said Mohammed Farhan, 24, an Iraqi police officer who was shot in the leg.
After a 15-minute gun battle, insurgents stormed the building and freed several dozen prisoners, witnesses said. One prisoner was killed in the fighting, hospital officials said.
More than 300 Iraqi police supported by U.S. soldiers attached to the Army's 1st Cavalry Division responded at the scene, U.S. officials said. They confronted the attackers, secured the station and searched house to house in the neighborhood for fleeing insurgents and freed inmates.
A U.S. military convoy was caught in the crossfire and a Humvee was damaged, but there were no U.S. casualties reported, said Lt. Col James Hutton, a military spokesman.
Last month, insurgents launched similar daytime raids against police stations in Mosul, but rarely have they attempted such audacious strikes in Iraq's capital.
- MILITARY DEATHS - War also takes its toll in noncombat-related deaths Aug 12, 2007
- 2,000 dead -- will it doom the war? Oct 26, 2005
- Doubts Fly on Terror Report's Reliability Nov 21, 2004
