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This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1365
December 6, 2005
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5461252,00.html
Tuesday December 6, 2005 8:16 PM
AP Photo BAG105
By SAMEER N. YACOUB
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Two suicide bombers detonated explosives inside Baghdad's main police academy Tuesday, killing at least 43 people and wounding more than 70, police said. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack, the capital's deadliest in months.
The bombing came as Al-Jazeera aired an insurgent video claiming to have kidnapped a U.S. security consultant - the seventh Westerner abducted in Iraq since Nov. 26 - and the U.S. military reported another American soldier killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad.
The assault on the police academy was carefully planned to maximize casualties, all of whom were police officers or cadets.
The first bomber struck near a group of students outside a classroom, a U.S. military statement said.
Thinking they were under mortar fire, survivors rushed to a bunker "where the second bomber detonated his vest," the statement added. One of the wounded was an American contractor.
A statement on an Islamist Web site in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq said "two blessed brothers" staged the attack on the academy "which continues to produce the dogs that shed the blood and violate the honor of Sunni Muslims."
The claim's authenticity could not be independently verified, but al-Qaida in Iraq's leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has often denounced Shiites because of religious differences and their leading role in the U.S.-backed government.
Iraqi police also said the attackers may have been policemen or students, fresh evidence that insurgents have infiltrated the country's security forces. President Bush has linked an eventual U.S. troop withdrawal to the ability of Iraq's army and police to combat the insurgents.
The attack was the deadliest against security Iraqi forces since Feb. 28, when a suicide car bomber struck a crowd of mostly Shiite police and army recruits in Hillah, killing 125. In September, at least 88 people were killed in a suicide car bombing in a heavily Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned of an increase in insurgent attacks ahead of the Dec. 15 elections. Residents of Ramadi reported seeing fliers Tuesday in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq warning people not to vote and threatening to bomb polling stations.
First reports said two women had attacked the police academy, but the report was later retracted. Officials said the report was based on the fact that two women had been allowed inside the compound without a body search because no female officers were available to perform it.
"We were sitting in the yard when we heard an explosion," said police Maj. Wisam al-Heyali. "Seconds later, we were hit by another explosion as we were running. I saw some of my colleagues falling down and I felt my hand hit, but I kept on running."
Police Capt. Jalil Abdul-Qadir said 43 people were killed, including seven policewomen, and at least 73 were wounded. U.S. forces placed the death toll at least 27.
Also Tuesday, the U.S. military said a soldier assigned to Task Force Baghdad was killed when a patrol hit a roadside bomb Sunday. At least 2,129 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war, according to an Associated Press count.
The video broadcast on Al-Jazeera showed a blond, Western-looking man sitting with his hands tied behind his back. The video also bore the logo of the Islamic Army in Iraq, an insurgent group, and showed a U.S. passport and an Arabic identification card with the name Ronald Schulz. The spelling of the name was uncertain because it was written in Arabic.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Liz Colton said U.S. authorities were aware of the Al-Jazeera report and were investigating.
The authenticity of the video could not be immediately confirmed.
If true, the man would be the second American taken hostage in the last two weeks. A U.S. citizen was among four peace activists taken hostage Nov. 26 by a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness. Two Canadians and a Briton were also seized.
On Tuesday, Bush said the United States will work for the return of captive Americans in Iraq but would not submit to terrorist tactics. "We, of course, don't pay ransom for any hostages," Bush said.
"What we will do, of course, is use our intelligence-gathering to see if we can't help locate them," Bush said.
A French engineer was taken hostage in Baghdad on Monday and a German aid worker was abducted near Mosul on Nov. 26.
Police Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said authorities had no he didn't have any additional information Tuesday about the kidnapping of the French engineer, Bernard Planche, but that the Interior Ministry had distributed his photo to checkpoints around Baghdad.
There is no evidence the kidnappings were coordinated, and those responsible for abducting the German aid worker and four Christian peace activists claim to represent different groups. But the incidents seemed timed to coincide with Saddam Hussein's trial or the Dec. 15 elections.
Christian Peacemaker Teams appealed to the kidnappers to release the four activists.
"As you can see by the statements of support from our friends in Iraq and all over the world, we work for those who are oppressed," the group said. "We also condemn our own governments for their actions in Iraq."
Also Tuesday, the Marines updated their report on the deaths of 10 Marines on Dec. 1.
The statement said the Marines from Company F, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, were not on a foot patrol, as previously reported, but were in an abandoned flour mill when they were killed by an explosion. The troops used the mill as a temporary patrol base.
The statement said the Marines had gathered in the mill for a promotion ceremony. The military suspects one of the Marines triggered a booby trap, causing the explosion, the statement said.
"Explosive experts believe four artillery shells were buried in two separate locations," it read.
Iraq bombers kill 27 at police academy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1659511,00.html?gusrc=rss
David Fickling and agencies
Tuesday December 6, 2005
Military officials reported that around 32 people were injured after the bombers detonated their explosives in the middle of a training class. Iraqi police said one bomb had exploded in a cafeteria, while the other went off during roll call.
Police Lieutenant Ali Mi'tab said the women were probably students at the academy - the reason they were not searched. Five other female police officers were among the dead, he added.
Training and recruitment courses for police and security forces have been a regular target of militants since the end of the Iraq war.
Many Sunnis see the police as being dominated by Shia Muslims, and more militant extremists are believed to want to weaken state forces generally.
In September, a Baghdad police academy was targeted by a suicide bomber who killed seven people and wounded 30. More than 20 died in a suicide attack on a graduation ceremony in south Baghdad in January.
A suicide attack on a police recruitment centre in the neighbouring northern province of Irbil in May claimed at least 60 lives.
Iraq's first female suicide bomber of the insurgency also struck in September, when she pushed her way into an army recruitment centre in the northern Iraqi town of Talafar.
Last week, it was revealed that a female suicide bomber who died during a November attack in Baghdad was Muriel Degauque, a 38-year-old Belgian convert to Islam,.
On Monday, the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, admitted the insurgency had been stronger than anticipated but said the media had focused on the war's growing death toll rather than the "progress" he claimed had been made.
"To be responsible, one needs to stop defining success in Iraq as the absence of terrorist attacks," Mr Rumsfeld added.
Women bombers kill Iraqi police http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4502948.stm
At least 27 Iraqi police officers have been killed and another 32 wounded in a suicide attack on a police academy in east Baghdad, the US military has said.
A US forces' statement said that the policemen were killed when two women blew themselves up inside a classroom at about 1245 (0945 GMT).
The attack was the worst since suicide bombers killed 74 people in two Shia mosques in November.
Iraqis queuing at recruitment centres have often been targeted by insurgents.
A translator working at the complex has told the BBC that at least one of the bombers was herself a police cadet.
The witness said the first bomber went into a classroom before detonating the explosive belt she was wearing.
As trainees and instructors tried to escape the scene there was a second explosion, also inside the academy building.
Roads around the complex have been sealed off and American forces have been helping the Iraqi emergency services to get the injured to hospital.
The attack comes three days after 19 Iraqi soldiers were killed in an attack by militants near the city of Baquba, north of the Iraqi capital, on Sunday.
US and Iraqi officials have warned of an increase in attacks by insurgents in the run-up to the parliamentary elections next week.
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1365