34 Killed, 224 Injured In Baghdad Attacks

ICRC Attacked

At least, twelve people were killed and scores wounded in massive car bombing outside the Baghdad headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Karrada district here, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"An Iraqi hospital ambulance sped toward us. I waved my arms to stop it. It barreled into the barrier blocking the headquarters and burst into flames," ICRC guard Saba Ali Ihsan told AFP.

Brigadier General Mark Hertling admitted that the capital came under a spiral of attacks.

"We had five devices going off today in Baghdad," said Hertling.

Earlier reports said that three people were killed and 22 wounded, six of them seriously, according to ICRC doctors and employees.

Ambulances and police raced through the streets towards the explosion site as Iraqis were seen running away.

Occupation helicopters flew overhead as a plume of thick black smoke rose into the blue sky.

Police Stations Attacked

Elsewhere in Baghdad, a number of police stations have come under attacks on Monday, killing eight Iraqi policemen and scores others, including 10 U.S. soldiers.

A shuddering explosion rocked Al-Elam police station in Al-Sidiya district southwestern Baghdad at 8:15 A.M. (5:15 GMT), killing three policemen and injuring 10 U.S. soldiers, IOL learnt.

A booby-trapped car rammed into the station, causing the deafening blast and sending thick flames of fire skyward.

The blast left a number of parked police cars burnt-out, while Iraqis were seen running away. U.S. tanks sealed off the area as Apache attack helicopters flew overhead.

Additionally, Al-Baya’a District’s police center west of Baghdad, surrounded by U.S. troops, was targeted by a booby-trapped car explosion that killed or injured a number of policemen and U.S. troops.

U.S. soldiers and Iraqi policemen opened sporadic fire in the air on what they believed were "suspected elements," wounding a number of civilians, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.

A third police center at Al-Khadra’a District some 25 km to the north of central Baghdad, witnessed a strong explosion that killed and injured a number of policemen and wounded a number of U.S. soldiers, eyewitnesses said.

Most of the glass of windows and doors of IOL’s office, as well as a number of other, houses were shattered.

A number of schools surrounding both police centers went into chaos and horror while school boys and girls left the schools, some of them injured by shattered glass caused by the explosions.
Meanwhile, an explosion hit the "Green Zone" — the occupation’s term for the sealed off security area that includes Saddam Hussein’s former presidential palace and other administrative buildings — Al-Rashid Hotel and the Conference Palace, IslamOnline.net quoted a U.S. spokesman as saying.

The spokesman told reporters that at least two (Katusha) rockets, fired from the southern Baghdad district of Al-Daura, where Iraq’s largest oil refinery sits.

The Conference Palace, opposite to Al-Rashid hotel, is also home for the U.S.-selected Governing Council, which also came under the rocket attack.

On Sunday, a blast took place at Amiriya area on the road of Baghdad International Airport, while another mine explosion occurred at its opposite district of Al-Khadra, only 100 meters from IOL office, causing no casualties.

The U.S. Civilian Ruler of Iraq, Paul Bremer, admitted in a press statement Sunday that Iraq witnessed an average of 25-30 attacks every day, claiming the lives and wounding hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi allies.

The blast occurred a day after a barrage of rockets pounded a central Baghdad hotel housing Wolfowitz, who escaped uninjured.

Surprised

Following the incident, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington has been surprised by the intensity of the attacks in Iraq.

"We did not expect it would be quite this intense this long," Powell told NBC television.

Late on Sunday, a U.S. soldier was killed and two wounded in a mortar attack in Abu Gharib prison near Baghdad, a military spokesman said.

"One military policeman was killed and two others wounded in the Abu Gharib prison at 10:30 pm (1930 GMT) Sunday," the spokesman said.

The deaths raised to 110 the number of U.S. soldiers killed since major hostilities were declared over on May 1.