The Hindu : Civilians die in attack on police station

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 11, 2004

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Civilians die in attack on police station

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA, FEB. 10. At least 35 people have been killed and 150 wounded in an apparent suicide bombing outside an Iraqi police station 40 km south of Baghdad.

The incident took place when a suspected explosives laden pick-up truck blew up and tore down the front portion of the police station in Iskandariya. The blast wrecked at least 15 cars and left a crater 25 metres wide.

The explosion at 9 A.M local time killed a large number of Iraqis who were waiting for recruitment in the police force. The toll is expected to rise, doctors at a local hospital were reported as saying.

Some of the injured have been ferried by helicopters to a nearby Polish field hospital.

Iraqi guerilla fighters have been targeting police stations as they see policemen as collaborators of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The resistance has so far killed at least 300 members of the U.S. backed new Iraqi police force.

Tension in Iskandariya has been running high and U.S. troops, who have sealed the town, were finding it hard to control the restive crowds. The anger appeared to be mainly directed at the U.S. occupation as anti-U.S. slogans could be heard in the vicinity of the police station after the blast.

At one point, the U.S. forces used gunfire to disperse crowds, after the latter had stoned one of the police vehicles, smashing its window.

Some analysts fear that the incident could heighten tensions between the Sunnis and Shias as Iskadariya is mainly a Shia town and the U.S. authorities have been saying that the Sunni-dominated Al-Qaeda network was planning to create sectarian tensions by targeting Shias.

On Monday, a U.S. military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, said "There is clearly a plan on the part of the outsiders to spark civil war, commit sectarian violence, try to expose fissures in society."

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