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Slew of Deadly Bombings Target Baghdad Police

Attacks underscore worries that Iraq cannot provide security after U.S. troops leave

Image: A soldier and policemen inspect the site of a bomb attack at a police station in Baghdad's Hurriya district
A soldier and policemen inspect the site of a bomb attack at a police station in Baghdad’s Hurriya district on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011. (Photo credit: Reuters)


October 12, 2011

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Attacks aimed at Iraqi police, including two in which assailants slammed explosives-packed cars into police stations, killed 25 people Wednesday and maimed dozens in the worst violence in the capital since August [link added].

Less than three months before American troops are to leave Iraq, the blasts were a brutal example of the challenges Iraqi security forces will face as they assume sole responsibility for containing terror groups such as al-Qaida.

The blasts were aimed at the police, generally considered to be the weakest section of the country’s security forces. Just days ago, authorities said the Iraqi army was delaying a scheduled pullout from the cities over concerns about whether the police were ready to provide security.

In the southern Karradah neighborhood, a suicide car bomb attack on a police station killed 13 people and wounded 25, Baghdad police officials said. Smoke rose from the blast site as ambulances rushed to the scene, their sirens wailing. Iraqi army helicopters circled overhead. …

In the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Hurriyah, another suicide car bomber targeted a police station and killed nine people, two Baghdad police officials said. Twenty-seven people were wounded in that blast.

The attack in Hurriyah was especially remarkable because the neighborhood, a stronghold of powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is almost entirely surrounded by blast walls. Access is tightly restricted through four entrances manned by the Iraqi army.

Two roadside bombs and a bomb in a parked car also killed two policemen and a civilian in western Baghdad.

The damage could have been even worse and more widespread. Iraqi police defused two more car bombs, and a bomb was discovered on the road leading to the police academy in eastern Baghdad, a Baghdad police official said. …

Wednesday’s carnage came two days after a series of explosions targeting security officials killed 10 people in Baghdad in a similar multi-pronged attack. [link added]

Full story

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10/14/11 Update

Twin bombs kill at least 16 in Baghdad, police say (AP and Reuters via MSNBC.com, Oct. 13, 2011) — A roadside bomb exploded near a coffee shop in the Shiite district of Sadr City followed by a car bomb that detonated nearby, killing at least 16 people in Baghdad on Thursday in the latest large attack to hit the Iraqi capital in less than a week. … Full story

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10/28/11 Update

Deadly bombings rip through Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad (AP and Reuters, Oct. 27, 2011) — A twin bombing killed 18 people and wounded 37 Thursday in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad — the deadliest attack to rock Iraq since President Barack Obama declared the full withdrawal of U.S. forces at the end of the year. … The first bomb targeted a police patrol in the Iraqi capital’s Ur district and the second exploded when emergency services were evacuating the wounded, the sources said. In recent days militants have carried out a campaign against Baghdad’s police force, many of the attacks have been aimed at largely unarmed traffic police officers. … Full story

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11/27/11 Update

Bombs kill 15 in and around Baghdad (AP, Nov. 26, 2011) — A series of blasts struck an area west of Baghdad on Saturday where day laborers gather to find work, as well as a music and clothes market in the capital, killing at least 15 people, officials said. On Thursday, three bombs struck the southern city of Basra, killing 19 people.  … Full story

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3/5/12 Update

Dozens dead as gunmen shoot police at Iraq checkpoints (Reuters via MSNBC.com, March 5, 2012) — Gunmen killed 27 police officers in a pre-dawn attack at checkpoints in the western Iraqi city of Haditha on Monday, according to reports. … The BBC reported that the attackers, some wearing army uniforms, also kidnapped two senior officers from their homes. … News channel Al Jazeera quoted a source as saying the attacks had exclusively targeted police personnel across several checkpoints. The death toll included two police colonels. … Full story

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Related reports on this site

Coordinated Bombings in Baghdad Target Iraqi Police (Oct. 11, 2011)

Insurgents Target Iraqi Soldiers, Police in Spate of Attacks (Sept. 14, 2011)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

One Year Ago — October 12, 2010

Political Solution to Afghan War


A man believed to be Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in a photograph taken in 1998, given to The New York Times by a former photographer for the Taliban.

One year ago today, I reported that members of Afghanistan’s new peace council said releasing Taliban figures detained at Guantanamo Bay and scratching scores of others off the U.N. sanctions list would jump-start peace talks aimed at ending the then 9-year-old war.

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Two Years Ago — October 12, 2009

Michele Bachmann’s MSNBC Amnesia

Two years ago today, on October 12, 2009, I reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann told bloggers at an event in Washington: “Quite honestly I don’t even know anything about MSNBC.” To refresh Bachmann’s memory, MSNBC is the cable network on which she dishonored her office on October 17, 2008, when she called for McCarthy-like witch hunts to find out which members of Congress are “pro-America or anti-America.”

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Three Years Ago — October 12, 2008

Christians Flee Iraqi City After Spate of Sectarian Attacks

Image: Christians flee Mosul
A convoy of cars and trucks as Christians flee Mosul on Monday, Oct. 13, 2008, a day after the 10th killing of an Iraqi Christian in the city since the beginning of the month. (Photo credit: Emad Matti / AP)

Three years ago today, on October 12, 2008, I reported on a spate of attacks against Christians in Mosul, Iraq, forcing hundreds of families to flee for their lives.





2 Responses to “Bomb Attacks Targeting Iraqi Police Continue in Baghdad”
  1. Immelman for Congress » Blog Archive » Iraq Continues Post-Saddam Slide to Sectarian War Says:

    […] Bomb Attacks Targeting Iraqi Police Continue in Baghdad (Oct. 12, 2011) […]

  2. The Immelman Turn » Blog Archive » Iraq Continues Post-Saddam Slide to Sectarian Civil War — Part 2 Says:

    […] Bomb Attacks Targeting Iraqi Police Continue in Baghdad (Oct. 12, 2011) […]

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