Suspected suicide bomb kills at least six in Iraq

8.00pm

BAGHDAD - A suspected suicide car bomb attack on the main police station in the restive Iraqi town of Baquba killed at least six people on Saturday, police said.

They said a car packed with explosives detonated at around 8am in the town, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad.

The police building was badly damaged by the blast and more than a dozen nearby cars were destroyed, witnesses said. Police said at least 16 people were wounded.

The blast was the latest of a series of attacks targeting Iraqi police.

Meanwhile a major human rights watchdog group condemned guerrilla attacks on civilians seen to be cooperating with Iraq's US-led occupation, saying such assaults were war crimes.

New York-based Human Rights Watch issued the condemnation a day after militants in Baghdad fired rockets from donkey carts at Iraq's oil ministry and two heavily fortified hotels linked to the Coalition Provisional Authority.

"Insurgents in Iraq are committing war crimes by targeting Iraqi civilians perceived to be cooperating with the CPA," the group said.

"International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, absolutely prohibits the targeting of civilians," the group said. "It doesn't matter whether they sympathise with the US occupation, or with the insurgents."

Hotels and government offices are forbidden targets as they can be presumed to be housing civilians, the group said.

Bombings and assassinations targeting civilians have become commonplace in Iraq since the US-led invasion.

Among the victims have been Aqila al-Hashimi, one of the three female members of the Iraq Governing Council, who was shot by gunmen near her Baghdad home Sept. 20 and died five days later.

There have also been deadly suicide bombings on the Baghdad offices of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Other attacks have targeted judges, religious leaders, politicians, police officers and government employees.

- REUTERS



- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq