Dozens killed in multiple Iraq blasts

[XXPANTHAXX]

Monday 07 February 2005 2:53 PM GMT

Bombers have killed at least 27 people in attacks in two
Iraqi cities in the worst bloodshed since the country's
election on 30 January.

Some 15 civilians were killed and 17 wounded on Monday when a
car bomb exploded outside the main police headquarters in the
town of Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.

Police said the driver of the car tried to ram the police
station but was blocked by a concrete barrier and detonated
his explosives some distance from it.

Husain al-Mujamai, an Iraqi journalist, told Aljazeera that
the targeted building was under tight security.

"However, the driver of the booby-trapped car managed to
reach the volunteers near one of the building's gates," he
said.

Volunteers targeted

All the casualties were probably volunteers as civilians have
no access to that area, according to al-Mujamai.

"We have heard that a large number of policemen have quit
their jobs during the last few months fearing for their
lives," he said.

However, unemployment and the difficult living situation is
forcing people to join the police as there are no other jobs,
al-Mujamai added.

As for the second attack, it occurred in the northern city of
Mosul. Twelve people were killed and six wounded when a
bomber targeted a crowd of police officers in a hospital
compound.

A large crater was blown into the road and at least five cars
were destroyed. Most, if not all, of the victims were thought
to be police officers.

Tricked to death

Jasim Hasan, an Iraqi journalist, told Aljazeera in Mosul
that Hasan Tahsin al-Ubaidi, director of Mosul's al-Jumhuriya
hospital, issued a statement on Monday saying that a man
arrived at the hospital and asked all policemen to gather in
order to chalk out a plan to capture him.

He then blew himself up among the men as they gathered,
killing 12 of them and injuring six others.

"The bomber's identity is unknown yet," Hasan said.

Iraqi police sources said a mortar shell was fired at a group
of policemen at the hospital.

But according to Hasan, most reports said a bomber blew
himself up among the policemen.

He quoted Al-Ubaidi, the hospital director, as saying that
there were no casualties among civilians and patients as the
explosion took place in the backyard of the hospital, where
only policemen were present.

More attacks

In another incident, Ninawa police directorate in central
Mosul city came under mortar attack on Monday morning, police
sources told Hasan.

Around 13 mortar shells landed in the outside yard of the
police directorate, killing three civilians, the sources
added.

For its part, the Islamist group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said
it shot dead an Iraqi translator working for US forces and
posted a video of the killing on the Internet.

The video showed the captive appealing to other translators
not to deal with US forces before he was blindfolded and shot
in the head.

Separately, the US military said its troops killed one
fighter and wounded another, possibly fatally, on Sunday in
response to two attacks on US troops in Baghdad's Sadr City.

On the same day, a US soldier was killed and two were wounded
by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad.

Egyptians released

Against this backdrop of violence, four Egyptian telecom
engineers seized on Sunday in Baghdad were released on
Monday, Egyptian embassy sources and a spokesman for their
company told AFP.

"They were released this afternoon at around 6:30pm (1530
GMT). They are in good health and no ransom was paid. They
should be leaving the country tomorrow early in the morning,"
Orascom spokesman Shamil Hanafi said.

The four were kidnapped outside their Baghdad home on Sunday
morning. They worked for Servco, a subsidiary of Egyptian
telecom giant Orascom.

An official at the Egyptian embassy in Baghdad confirmed the
release.

Orascom clinched the contract to operate the mobile phone
network in the Baghdad area through another subsidiary,
Iraqna.