Dozens die as rebels set off bombs in Iraq

By BASSEM MROUE
The Associated Press

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More than 36 car bombings since the beginning of September illustrate the insurgents' seeming ability to strike at will despite recent pledges by the United States and Iraq to intensify the suppression of insurgents.

The day's violence also included assassinations of three Iraqis, and U.S. attacks against targets in insurgent-held Fallujah. In the latest hostage developments, kidnappers freed two Indonesian women, but a separate militant group claimed to have killed a Turkish man and a longtime Iraqi resident of Italy.

No coalition forces were wounded in either of yesterday's blasts in Baghdad, said Maj. Phil Smith, a spokesman for the 1st Cavalry Division.

The first car bombing yesterday occurred near an Iraqi security-services recruiting station at the western entrance of the Green Zone, said Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman.

Soon after, across the Tigris River, a pickup packed with dates and explosives plowed into a three-vehicle convoy as it left a parking lot shared by several hotels housing hundreds of foreign contractors and journalists.

Two more car bombs exploded in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad. One blast killed a civilian bystander and two people believed to be transporting explosives, said Capt. Angela Bowman, a military spokeswoman. The second bomb targeted a U.S. Army convoy, wounding one U.S. soldier, Bowman said.

In Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of the capital, a police commander was assassinated in a drive-by shooting, police said.

There were also assassinations in Baghdad, where gunmen killed a senior official of Iraq's Sciences and Technology Ministry and an employee, Abdul-Rahman said.

Last night, U.S. warplanes attacked the Baghdad slum of Sadr City, and skirmishes were continuing between U.S. troops and rebels in the area, a spokesman for the insurgents said.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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