BAGHDAD, 23 November 2005 — A suicide car bomb blast killed 18 people, including 10 police, in the northern city of Kirkuk yesterday, and mortars landed near the US ambassador to Iraq during a ceremony in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit. The bomber detonated his explosives-laden car next to a group of police vehicles on the main road leading south from Kirkuk to Baghdad shortly after sunset. Police Col. Borhan Tayyib Taha said 28 people were wounded in the blast.
Ambulances ferried the worst cases to hospitals in Kirkuk, where distraught relatives gathered to search for loved ones.
Police said they expected the toll to rise as many of those injured were badly wounded.
“The market is normally very busy at this hour because people do their shopping there before heading home,” said Nassim Khodr, a local shopkeeper. “I just saw flames bursting into the sky and people burning.”
US soldiers and police cordoned off the area following the explosion at around 7 p.m.
A few hours earlier, three Iraqi soldiers were wounded when another suicide bomber drove his explosives-laden car into military roadblock just south of Kirkuk, police said.
The latest bloodletting came as one of Iraq’s vice presidents, Adel Abdel Mahdi, said the government stood ready to help insurgents lay down their weapons, in the latest bid to encourage reconciliation in the wartorn country.
“We are not bent on revenge. We will help any party wishing to disarm,” he told reporters. His comments came just two days after President Jalal Talabani said he was prepared to hold talks with rebels. “To those who took up arms to end the occupation, we say that the solution will not come through weapons but through political dialogue and democratic means,” Talabani said in Cairo where he attended an Arab League-sponsored meeting of Iraq’s rival factions.
