[NYTr] Bomb Strikes Basra Police Headquarters

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP - Sep 25, 2007
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=TXPLA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Bomb Strikes Basra Police Headquarters

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD (AP) -- A suicide car bomber struck the police headquarters in
Basra on Tuesday, killing at least three officers and wounding 20
people, raising new concerns about security in the southern city now
that British forces have withdrawn to the fringes.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, at least seven people were killed - six in a car
bombing on a shopping street in an eastern neighborhood near a line of
pensioners outside a bank, the police said. Another person died in a
roadside bomb.

A roadside bomb also killed an American soldier Tuesday in Diyala
province, northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, had
been relatively peaceful for much of the war but has seen tensions rise
as Shiite militias battle for control of the oil-rich area.

Maj. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, Basra's police chief, said one of the
suicide bomber's legs had been found tied to the steering wheel, and he
blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for the attack.

"It seems that al-Qaida wants to make use of the fragile situation in
the city caused by the tension among the parties and the city's
officials," he said. "We cannot say that there is a security vacuum,
but the security measures are less strong in the day than the night.
After this attack, we will increase the police patrols in the day."

The British military last month pulled back its troops out of the city
to a nearby airport to allow Iraqi security forces to take over - a
move being closely watched by the U.S. as it anticipates the eventual
withdrawal of American forces elsewhere in Iraq.

Provincial leaders northeast of Baghdad, meanwhile, pledged to press
ahead with efforts to bring Shiites and Sunnis together after a suicide
attacker struck a unity meeting of about 800 people in Baqouba, killing
at least 24, including the city's police chief and other top officials.
The U.S. military blamed al-Qaida for the attack.

Two American soldiers were also wounded in Monday's blast at a Shiite
mosque in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province and a former al-Qaida
in Iraq stronghold about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, according to
U.S. officials.

The brazen attack represented a major challenge to U.S. efforts to
bring together Shiites and Sunnis here in Diyala province, scene of
some of the bitterest fighting in Iraq.

Witnesses and officials said the bomber struck when most of the victims
were in the mosque courtyard cleaning their hands or drinking tea
during Iftar, the daily meal in which Muslims break their
sunrise-to-sunset fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

AP Television News video showed piles of clothes and other debris in
pools of blood and broken white plastic chairs scattered on the floor
of the mosque's entrance, with three bowls of grapes left over from the
feast still sitting on a counter.

"This attack will not stop the provincial government's efforts to
reconcile the tribes and help them put aside their differences to
achieve unity," said provincial Gov. Raad Rashid al-Tamimi, who was
wounded in the blast.

Police Maj. Salah al-Jurani said he believed al-Tamimi was the intended
target. The dead included the governor's driver, Baqouba's police
chief, and the Diyala provincial operations chief.

The violence to the north and south of the capital reflects the
political and security obstacles facing the Shiite-led government as it
tries to assert control so U.S.-led troops can go home.

Friction between Iraqi and U.S. officials also has spiked over a deadly
Sept. 16 shooting involving Blackwater USA security guards in Baghdad,
and the U.S. troops' arrest last week of an Iranian officer whom the
Iraqis claim was here by official invitation.

Iran closed five major border crossings with Kurdish areas to protest
the detention in a move that threatens the economy of Iraq's northern
region - one of the country's few success stories - and appears aimed
at driving a wedge between Iraq and the Americans at a time of friction
over the Blackwater shootings.

The state-owned IRAN daily reported that Iranian forces have fired
artillery against Kurdish guerrilla positions in Iraqi border areas -
the first Iranian confirmation of the shelling.

An Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said a draft law that would place
private security companies under the ministry's supervision and make
their personnel accountable for their actions has been submitted to a
state legal committee for review.

The measure, which would also have to be approved by the Cabinet and
parliament, was the latest in a series of conflicting reactions by
government officials, who also have threatened to expel Blackwater from
Iraq or take the case to Iraqi courts as anger grows over the shooting
deaths of 11 Iraqi civilians in the heart of Baghdad.

Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater, the biggest of the State Department's
three private security contractors in Iraq, has defended its actions,
saying the guards were under attack by armed insurgents.

Contractors, U.S. troops and many other foreign officials have immunity
from prosecution under Iraqi law, thanks to a directive issued by U.S.
occupation authorities in 2004. Blackwater's contractors are also not
subject to U.S. military law.

"This legislation will cover all aspects of these companies' operations
and bring them all under Iraqi law," said Interior Ministry spokesman,
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf.


[Associated Press writers Katarina Kratovac and Hamid Ahmed in Baghdad
and Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah contributed to this report.]

© 2007 The Associated Press.