BAGHDAD, 30 April 2005 — At least 38 people were killed and more than 100 injured as insurgents unleashed a series of deadly attacks yesterday, including 10 car bombings in and around the capital, the day after the country’s first democratically elected government was approved.
In a new audio tape, Iraq’s most-wanted terrorist, Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, purportedly threatened more violence and warned Iraqis against collaborating with the Americans. The authenticity of the recording could not immediately be verified.
At least 10 car bombs exploded in seven areas in and around Baghdad yesterday, the US military said. Seven American soldiers suffered minor injuries but none were killed in the attacks, said US military spokesman Greg Kaufman.
“We see these attacks as another desperate attempt by the terrorists to discredit the newly formed Iraqi government,” US-led forces said in a statement. The attacks continue “the terrorists failing attempts to drive a wedge between the Iraqi people and their right to choose their own destiny.”
The most serious of yesterday’s attacks involved four suicide car bombings, which exploded in quick succession in the Azamiyah section of central Baghdad, said police chief Brig. Gen. Khalid Al-Hassan.
The first one hit an Iraqi Army patrol, the second a police patrol and the third and fourth at separate barricades near the headquarters of the police special forces unit, said Al-Hassan.
Col. Hussein Mutlak said the attacks killed at least 20 Iraqis, including 15 soldiers and five civilians. At least 65 were injured, including 30 troops and 35 civilians, he said.
Ambulances sped to hospitals and policemen crouched in fear after the explosions, which set fire and caused heavy damage to the special forces headquarters.
In Baquba, a suicide attacker blew up an ambulance packed with explosives near a police special forces patrol, killing four Iraqis, including two policemen, said police Brig. Gen. Adel Molan. Twenty Iraqis were injured, including four police, he said. Maj. Steven Warren, a US military spokesman, said the bomber drove his vehicle up to a truck carrying the Iraqi troops.
Also in Baquba, a Sunni cleric believed to be a senior member of Zarqawi’s Al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist group blew himself up as Iraqi security forces surrounded the city’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to Ali Fadhil of the joint operation center 60 kilometers north of Baghdad.
“Imam Abdul Razaq Rashid Hamid ... came out from the mosque with two hand grenades as our forces were surrounding the mosque,” Fadhil said. “He threw one of the grenades at the forces while blowing himself up with the second one.”
— With input from agencies
