Suicide Bombings

A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a police convoy in southern Afghanistan, killing four civilians and wounding eight people, including five officers, an official said. The bomber was targeting the district police chief in Musa Qala in Helmand province, the provincial police chief said. In Zabol province, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. military vehicle, killing one coalition service member and a civilian. Their names were not released.

A suicide bomber killed 16 Iraqis on Thursday outside a police station in an area of northern Iraq contested by Kurds and Arabs. The bomber struck alongside police recruits in the town of Sinjar in Nineveh province. The dead included 14 recruits and two policemen, said Brig. Gen. Khalil Juboori of the provincial police. An injured policeman said the police had been warned Wednesday of a potential attack and had planned to cancel Thursday's recruitment drive.

Nearly 40 people were killed and about 100 injured Thursday in a suicide attack at a town meeting in Anbar province and a coordinated rocket attack and bombing in the northern city of Mosul. The dead included three U.S. Marines. The mayor and the tribal chief in the Anbar town of Karmah were killed along with the Marines and 16 other people when a bomber blew himself up during a meeting of sheiks and city leaders. Twenty people were injured.

The tactic echoed the unthinkable cruelty of the Iraqi war zone. The target was a crowded family restaurant. And the accused would-be attacker, who was wounded when his bomb went off prematurely in the restaurant bathroom, was a hulking 22-year-old who police say has mental problems.

Four female suicide bombers attacked religious pilgrims in Baghdad and political protesters in ethnically mixed Kirkuk on Monday, killing dozens of people and wounding hundreds in a reminder of how raw Iraq's divisions remain despite a sharp drop in violence. A four-year low in attacks has prompted senior U.S. officials in Iraq to describe Sunni Arab militants as a spent force no longer capable of toppling Iraq's Shiite Muslim-led government.

The trial of three alleged accomplices of the suicide bombers who struck the London transit system on July 7, 2005, killing 52 people, ended Friday when the jury failed to reach a verdict. Prosecutors had charged that the men helped scout targets during an alleged reconnaissance trip to London. The trio admitted training at militant camps in Pakistan, and physical evidence tied them to apartments where the backpack bombs were assembled, according to testimony.

In the worst loss of life for Western troops in ground combat with Taliban forces in Afghanistan, insurgents ambushed and killed 10 French soldiers and wounded 21 in a sustained assault outside the capital, military officials said Tuesday. Separately, militants made an hours-long attempt to overrun a major U.S.

A suicide bomber tried to assassinate politician Ahmad Chalabi on Friday night, killing six of his guards when he rammed his car into the Shiite Muslim politician's speeding convoy, Chalabi's spokesman said. Chalabi, who has survived at least three previous attempts on his life, was returning to his home in the west Baghdad district of Mansour when the bomber in a sport utility vehicle struck, spokesman Iyad Kadhim Sabti said.

A female suicide bomber detonated an explosives vest Wednesday in front of a courthouse in Baqubah, killing 11 people and wounding 19, Iraqi officials said. A man accompanying the woman failed to detonate his vest and was arrested at the scene, Diyala provincial council chief Ibrahim Ahmed Bajilan said. "We were inside the court building when we heard a thunderous explosion followed by people's cries," said Abu Mohammed, a lawyer.