Baghdad, July 19, 2004 - Iraqis chanted in support of Saddam Hussein and against the United States after a suicide truck bomber ripped through a line of police cars in Baghdad on Monday, leaving a massive crater ringed with mangled chunks of metal and burnt flesh.

At least nine people were killed and 60 wounded in the latest and one of the most powerful bombings against Iraq's fledgling security forces, the health ministry said.

Moments after the explosion outside the police station in the southern Saydia neighbourhood, a group of about 30 people, including two women and about a dozen boys, struck up a chant in support of the jailed dictator.

"With all our blood and souls we defend you Saddam," they cried, prompting Iraqi national guards, who were trying to secure the blast site, to fire into the air to disperse them.

A national guard captain himself, however, turned on the US-led military presence as the root cause of the mayhem that has ravaged Iraq for the past 15 months.

"The Americans must leave. All of this is their fault. We did not have attacks such as this before they arrived," said the captain who only gave his name as Hamid.

Scores of police cars and vans, the proud symbol of a new Iraq, lay in ruins, some ripped apart by the blast, others badly dented and most with their windscreens smashed.


Tanker

"A truck, with someone behind the wheel, sped into the parking lot and exploded," said policeman Haitham Salmane, as three fire engines sprayed water on flames engulfing the surrounding vehicles.

Sirens blaring, ambulances sped in and out of the area ferrying the many wounded and dead.

"I was in the station when I heard an enormous explosion. I rushed outside and saw four dead bodies taken to the hospital," said policeman Aki Ghazi.

"I was scared that there would be a second blast and so I retreated back into the station," he said, still visibly shaken by the shock of the onslaught.

Several witnesses described seeing a small tanker speed up to the site and detonate but they were unable to say whether it had been loaded with fuel.

The blast occured at about 08:20 in between a police station, with a carpark and a public garage, with petrol pumps and a car wash.

The roof of the petrol station was torn apart by the force of the explosion, which also destroyed neighbouring houses and wreaked damage to other property over about a one kilometre (half a mile) radius.

At least 50 new Iraqi police vehicles were wrecked in the attack, while the police station itself - a long, modern building - escaped relatively intact.

Standing outside the remains of her home, several metres (yards) away from the blast site, a woman dressed in a black robe looked up to the sky in despair.

"Where am I going to go now?" she cried.

"Will I go to the Americans, or the Iraqi police?"

Edited by Tisha Steyn


http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Iraq/0,6119,2-10-1460_155
9874,00.html