Thursday, June 24, 2004
Insurgents targeted police stations in several cities across the country.
BAQOUBA, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents launched coordinated attacks against police and government buildings across Iraq today, less than a week before the hand-over of sovereignty. The strikes killed 69 people, including three American soldiers, and wounded more than 270 people, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.
The large number of attacks, mostly directed at Iraqi security services, was a clear sign of just how powerful the insurgency in Iraq remains and could be the start of a new push to torpedo Wednesday's transfer of sovereignty to an interim transitional government.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said that the attacks were meant "to foil the democratic process" but that the situation was under control.
In Baghdad, the Health Ministry said at least 66 people were killed and 268 injured nationwide. However, those figures did not include U.S. dead and injured.
Cities affected
Some of the heaviest fighting was reported in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, where two American soldiers were killed and seven were wounded, the U.S. 1st Infantry Division said. Attackers also targeted police stations in Ramadi, Mahaweel and the northern city of Mosul, where car bombs rocked the Iraqi Police Academy, two police stations and the al-Jumhuri hospital.
Khalid Mohammed, an official at the hospital, said dozens of injured were brought there. At least 50 people died and 170 were wounded there, he said. A U.S. soldier also was killed and three were wounded in Mosul.
Mosul's governor imposed a 9 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew, and the city television station urged people to stay home for the "general good."
In other attacks, four Iraqi soldiers were killed in an explosion near a checkpoint manned by Iraqi and American soldiers in the southern Baghdad district of Dora. Three U.S. soldiers tended to what appeared to be a wounded American soldier on the road. The soldier's helmet lay nearby. Black smoke and flames shot up from a burning pickup truck.
Also in Baghdad, insurgents attacked four Iraqi police stations using mortars, hand grenades and AK-47s on Wednesday and today. Police fought back and defended the stations with minimal assistance from coalition forces, a U.S. statement said.
Claim of responsibility
A statement quoted today by a Saudi Web site claimed responsibility for the Baqouba attacks in the name of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who said the insurgents belong to his Tawhid and Jihad movement. He called on residents to "comply with the instructions of resistance."
The statement appealed to residents to remain in their homes "because these days are going to witness campaigns and attacks against the occupation troops and those who stand beside them."
U.S. aircraft dropped three 500-pound bombs against an insurgent position near the city soccer stadium in Baqouba, said Maj. Neal E. O'Brien, a U.S. 1st Infantry Division spokesman. Insurgents roamed the city with rocket launchers and automatic weapons and occupied two police stations.
Insurgents destroyed the home of the provincial police chief, O'Brien said.
Doctors struggled to deal with a steady stream of injured as civilian cars and pickup trucks carrying wounded raced to the door of the main hospital's emergency ward. Corridors were spattered with blood.
"May God destroy America and all those who cooperate with it!" one man screamed in the corridor.
Another man carried the body of a young man shot in the back of the head and cried, "Oh God! Abbas is dead!"
Post-battle scene
The city, which has a mix of Sunni and Shiite Muslims, was almost deserted by late morning. U.S. gunships flew low over the city, some swooping down on suspected rebel hide-outs in palm groves.
Some motorists flew white flags from atop their cars to ensure their safety. U.S. tanks, some firing their machine guns, moved into the city center by the afternoon.
Police were not seen on the streets, but government buildings were being heavily guarded.
U.S. officials projected calm.
"Coalition forces feel confident with the situation," said Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, coalition deputy operations chief.
Explosions and shelling shook Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, as armed men ran through the streets, witnesses said. Residents said U.S. forces were shelling from positions outside the city and helicopters were in the skies, but the U.S. military could not immediately be reached to comment.
One Marine helicopter made an emergency landing, but no one was wounded.
U.S. fires on convoy
U.S. forces manning a checkpoint opened fire on a local government convoy that included Fallujah's mayor and police chief, who were trying to meet the Americans to discuss the violence, an Iraqi police lieutenant said on condition of anonymity. The convoy turned back, and no injuries were reported.
A motorist who drove through Fallujah this morning said Iraqi police and insurgents were cooperating, chatting amicably along the streets, and seemed to be working together.
U.S. forces launched two airstrikes on Fallujah in recent days against what they said were safe houses of al-Zarqawi, whose group claimed responsibility for the beheading of American hostage Nicholas Berg and South Korean hostage Kim Sun-il, whose decapitated body was found Tuesday between Baghdad and Fallujah.
On Tuesday, an audiotape posted on an Islamic Web site attributed to al-Zarqawi threatened to assassinate Allawi.