Eight killed as suicide bomber attacks Baghdad police station

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A suicide bomber drove a car packed with

explosives into an Iraqi police compound Thursday and blew himself

up, killing at least eight people, including four officers, and

wounding more than 30.

Meanwhile, two gunmen shot and killed a Spanish military attache

outside his Baghdad home.

And the U.S. military reported that a 4th Infantry Division

soldier died after being wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade

attack near the town of Baqubah, about 40 miles northeast of the

Iraqi capital, where attacks on U.S. soldiers have been

frequent.

The police station bombing in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr

City apparently was intended to inflame Iraq’s Shiite

majority. Relations between U.S. forces and Iraqi Shiites have been

deteriorating in recent weeks, especially in Sadr City.

U.S. soldiers infuriated the neighborhood’s Shiite

residents two months ago when a helicopter crewman tried to remove

a sacred religious banner from a telecommunications tower. The

military apologized, but anti-American passions have remained

high.

Many people in the neighborhood are followers of Moqtada al

Sadr, a fiery young Shiite cleric who has spoken out against the

U.S.-led occupation and the U.S.-backed Governing Council. Sadr

does not represent the majority of Iraqi Shiites, but he has a big

following in Baghdad.

This week, tensions between his followers and American forces

rose dramatically after U.S. soldiers arrested a Shiite cleric in

another Baghdad neighborhood for allegedly storing weapons in his

mosque.

U.S. troops clashed briefly with militiamen around the mosque

after more than 1,000 protesters blocked a highway, demanding the

cleric’s release. More than 5,000 Shiites marched in protest

on Wednesday. The group’s leaders warned they would turn to

violence soon if the cleric is not released.

Iraqi Shiites are also angry that, during U.S. control of the

country, one of their leading clerics, Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al

Hakim, was killed along with 78 people in a car bombing in August

at a shrine in Najaf.

The shooting of the Spanish military official reinforced a

perception in Iraq that anti-coalition guerrillas would target

anyone who cooperates with U.S.-led forces, and it occurred when

the United States and Britain are seeking more international help.

Spain is the co-sponsor of a U.S.-British resolution that would

slightly expand the U.N. role in Iraq, which now is limited to

providing some humanitarian aid.

Drew Brown
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)

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