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40 killed in Baghdad blasts

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA Oct. 27. In rapidly escalating violence, 40 persons were killed and scores injured in a series of blasts that rocked the Iraqi capital this morning, a day after the visiting United States Deputy Defence Secretary, Paul Wolfowitz, escaped unhurt when a hail of rockets slammed the hotel he was staying in.

In the well-coordinated strikes which took place within a space of 30 minutes, 12 persons were killed when an explosives-laden ambulance with Red Crescent markings detonated at the gates of the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters, about 60 feet from the main building. Twenty-eight others, including a U.S. soldier, were killed when car bombs exploded at four police stations in various locations of the city. Several were wounded in these attacks. Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling of the U.S. Army said these attacks might have been timed with the start of the holy month of Ramzan.

In the powerful suicide blast at the ICRC headquarters, the outer-parameter wall of the building collapsed and there was extensive damage to the three-storey structure. Nearly a dozen cars in the vicinity were destroyed. The detonation also broke the water main causing water logging in the streets. Around 100 ICRC workers are usually inside the building by 9 a.m. local time, but only a quarter of them might have been present at the time of the explosion which took place half-an hour earlier. An ICRC spokesperson, Nada Doumani, said that two of the 12 killed in the attack worked for the organisation and were probably security guards.

The U.S. military command said on Monday that three U.S. soldiers were killed in separate incidents in Baghdad, apart from the U.S. Army Colonel who died when the Al Rashid Hotel came under a rocket attack on Sunday. Elsewhere, in the restive city of Fallujah, U.S. troops on Monday reportedly opened fire killing at least four Iraqi civilians after a roadside bomb exploded close to a passing U.S. military convoy. The U.S. command did not immediately confirm the incident or any U.S. casualties.

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