The Hindu : International : Police stations, hospital hit in Iraq

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Tuesday, Feb 08, 2005

International

International

Police stations, hospital hit in Iraq

BAGHDAD, FEB. 7. Militants struck at Iraqi police forces with a suicide bomb, a car bomb and mortars in Mosul and Baqouba on Monday, killing at least 30 persons as they pressed their campaign to undermine the nation's fledgling security forces.

The deadliest attack came in Baqouba, where a car bomb exploded outside the gates of a provincial police headquarters, killing 15 persons and wounding 17, said the police Col. Mudhahar al-Jubouri. Many of the victims were there to seek jobs as policemen, he said.

In Mosul, a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the compound of Jumhouri Teaching Hospital, killing 12 policemen guarding the site and injuring four others, hospital officials said. The bomb went off outside the hospital building, said the hospital Director. Witnesses said the bomber called the police officers over to him and then blew up among the crowd. ``I heard an explosion. When I went to check, I saw bodies everywhere.''

The ground was soaked with blood. Nurses collected body parts, putting them in bags.

In a posting on a Web site, the Al-Qaeda group, led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said ``a lion from the Martyrs Brigade'' wearing an explosives belt managed to get inside a police post at the Mosul hospital. The claim could not be verified. There was no claim for the Baqouba attack.

Also on Monday, militants shelled a police station in Mosul with more than a dozen mortar rounds, killing three civilians, a police official said. — AP

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