Bomb Near Baghdad Police Station Kills 18 People Thaier al-Sudani/Reuters
A woman looked at the wreckage of a vehicle destroyed in bomb attacks in the Baghdad neighborhood of Nahdha on Wednesday.
By ERIC OWLES and CAMPBELL ROBERTSON Published: December 17, 2008
BAGHDAD — A bomb planted in a minibus exploded near a parking lot of the Iraqi traffic police in a market neighborhood of northeastern Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 18 people and injuring 52, Ministry of Interior and police officials said.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq in Baghdad on Wednesday, in a photo provided by the Iraqi prime minister's office.
The attack, in a small market of barbershops and butchers, happened in stages, according to the police. A small blast drew people from their homes, and then the minibus exploded. The attack appeared to target an Iraqi traffic police station nearby. At least three of those killed were Iraqi police officers.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the bombing, which was in the Nahdha neighborhood. However, the pace of violence in Iraq has picked up in the last few weeks with the approach of provincial elections, and both American and Iraqi security officials have warned that there could be more violence in the coming days. Last week, 48 people died in the tense northern city of Kirkuk when a suicide bomber attacked a packed restaurant where Sunni Arabs and Kurds were meeting to ease frictions.
The attack on Wednesday came on the same day that Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, in a surprise visit to the Iraqi capital, confirmed that British troops would leave Iraq next summer. In a joint statement with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, Mr. Brown confirmed the long-expected withdrawal, and said: “The role played by the U.K. combat forces is drawing to a close. These forces will have completed their tasks in the first half of 2009 and will then leave Iraq.”
Britain has 4,100 troops in Iraq, down from the 46,000 that joined the American-led invasion in March 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein. The British contingent constituted Washington’s most important ally in the invasion. After his meeting with Mr. Maliki, Mr. Brown left for the southern city of Basra, where the remaining British troops are based.
Nahdha is a mixed Sunni and Shiite neighborhood. Police stations are a favorite target for insurgents, and residents have complained about having one in their neighborhood.
Wounded Iraqi police officers remained on the scene after the dead were taken away in ambulances. Maj. Mahdi Ahmid, an administrative officer with the Iraqi traffic police, had large bandages on his face after being struck by shrapnel. He said he heard the first blast and stepped outside to find out what had happened. Five minutes later, he said, the second, more powerful bomb exploded.
The Iraqi police officers’ cars near the blast were shattered, and shrapnel, tires and debris landed more than a block away. Abu Aws, a 40-year-old former traffic police officer who now lives down the street from the bomb site, found a child’s shoe with a piece of metal sticking out of it.
At least one body was recovered without a head. When police officers arrived on the scene, they called out for missing colleagues.
The explosion damaged a water line, and blood mixed with mud in the streets. Four teenage boys used pieces of cardboard to pick up human remains in the middle of the street.
A resident who asked to remain anonymous said he brought blankets out “to cover three of my friends who were killed.”
One officer, Cpl. Nadeen Amel, was wounded by flying glass. A bandage was wrapped around his head and blood was splattered on his uniform.
In a second attack in Baghdad on Wednesday, a car bomb at a checkpoint killed two civilians and wounded four Iraqi police officers.
Mr. Brown’s announcement of the British withdrawal is one of many changes now under way as Iraqis take more control of military operations around the country. The American military announced late Tuesday that it was handing over to the Iraqi judicial system 39 detainees who held positions in the Hussein regime and who are accused of crimes against fellow Iraqis.
Wednesday’s visit was Mr. Brown’s fourth to Iraq and followed a valedictory appearance earlier this week by President Bush during which he was forced to dodge shoes thrown at him by an Iraqi journalist at a news conference.
Riyadh Muhammad contributed reporting from Baghdad and Alissa J. Rubin from Paris.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
