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34 Killed, 224 Injured In Baghdad Attacks
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A
fire engine rushes to the scene of the ICRC bombing
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Additional
Reporting By Subhy Haddad, Aws Al-Sharqy, IOL correspondents
BAGHDAD,
October 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Thirty-Four people
have been killed and 224 injured, including 10 U.S. soldiers, Monday
morning, October 27, when five attacks rocked different vital places
in Iraq, just one day after a barrage of heavy rockets pounded
Al-Rashid Hotel housing U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz,
interim deputy interior minister Ahmed Ibrahim said.
ICRC
Attacked
At
least, twelve people were killed and scores wounded in massive car
bombing outside the Baghdad headquarters of the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Karrada district here,
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"An
Iraqi hospital ambulance sped toward us. I waved my arms to stop it.
It barreled into the barrier blocking the headquarters and burst into
flames," ICRC guard Saba Ali Ihsan told AFP.
Brigadier
General Mark Hertling admitted that the capital came under a spiral of
attacks.
"We
had five devices going off today in Baghdad," said Hertling.
Earlier
reports said that three people were killed and 22 wounded, six of them
seriously, according to ICRC doctors and employees.
Ambulances
and police raced through the streets towards the explosion site as
Iraqis were seen running away.
Occupation
helicopters flew overhead as a plume of thick black smoke rose into
the blue sky.
Police
Stations Attacked
Elsewhere
in Baghdad, a number of police stations have come under attacks on
Monday, killing eight Iraqi policemen and scores others, including 10
U.S. soldiers.
A
shuddering explosion rocked Al-Elam police station in Al-Sidiya
district southwestern Baghdad at 8:15 A.M. (5:15 GMT), killing three
policemen and injuring 10 U.S. soldiers, IOL learnt.
A
booby-trapped car rammed into the station, causing the deafening blast
and sending thick flames of fire skyward.
The
blast left a number of parked police cars burnt-out, while Iraqis were
seen running away. U.S. tanks sealed off the area as Apache attack
helicopters flew overhead.
Additionally,
Al-Baya’a District’s police center west of Baghdad, surrounded by
U.S. troops, was targeted by a booby-trapped car explosion that killed
or injured a number of policemen and U.S. troops.
U.S.
soldiers and Iraqi policemen opened sporadic fire in the air on what
they believed were "suspected elements," wounding a number
of civilians, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.
A
third police center at Al-Khadra’a District some 25 km to the north
of central Baghdad, witnessed a strong explosion that killed and
injured a number of policemen and wounded a number of U.S. soldiers,
eyewitnesses said.
Most
of the glass of windows and doors of IOL's office, as well as a number
of other, houses were shattered.
A
number of schools surrounding both police centers went into chaos and
horror while school boys and girls left the schools, some of them
injured by shattered glass caused by the explosions.
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U.S. soldiers deploy in front of the Al-Elam police station following the explosion
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Meanwhile,
an explosion hit the "Green Zone" -- the occupation's term
for the sealed off security area that includes Saddam Hussein's former
presidential palace and other administrative buildings -- Al-Rashid
Hotel and the Conference Palace, IslamOnline.net quoted a U.S.
spokesman as saying.
The
spokesman told reporters that at least two (Katusha) rockets, fired
from the southern Baghdad district of Al-Daura, where Iraq’s largest
oil refinery sits.
The
Conference Palace, opposite to Al-Rashid hotel, is also home for the
U.S.-selected Governing Council, which also came under the rocket
attack.
On
Sunday, a blast took place at Amiriya area on the road of Baghdad
International Airport, while another mine explosion occurred at its
opposite district of Al-Khadra, only 100 meters from IOL office,
causing no casualties.
The
U.S. Civilian Ruler of Iraq, Paul Bremer, admitted in a press
statement Sunday that Iraq witnessed an average of 25-30 attacks every
day, claiming the lives and wounding hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi
allies.
The
blast occurred a day after a barrage of rockets pounded
a central Baghdad hotel housing Wolfowitz, who escaped uninjured.
Surprised
Following
the incident, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington has
been surprised by the intensity of the attacks in Iraq.
"We
did not expect it would be quite this intense this long," Powell
told NBC television.
Late
on Sunday, a U.S. soldier was killed and two wounded in a mortar
attack in Abu Gharib prison near Baghdad, a military spokesman said.
"One
military policeman was killed and two others wounded in the Abu Gharib
prison at 10:30 pm (1930 GMT) Sunday," the spokesman said.
The
deaths raised to 110 the number of U.S. soldiers killed since major
hostilities were declared over on May 1.
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