Just another day in Iraq

US soldiers and Iraqis rush to help bomb victims

Scores killed in Iraq bomb attack

At least 68 people have been killed in a car bomb explosion outside a police station in Iraq, exactly one month after the transfer of sovereignty.

Witnesses said a suicide bomber drove a car into a crowded market area, as men queued to join the police.

Dozens of people were also injured in the morning attack in Baquba, 65km (40 miles) north-east of Baghdad.

More than 160 Iraqis have been killed in attacks since the interim Iraqi government took power on 28 June.

In other violence:

* seven Iraqi soldiers and 35 insurgents were killed in a joint multinational and Iraqi raid near the town of Suwariya, south of Baghdad

* two soldiers serving with multinational forces were killed in clashes with insurgents in Anbar province, the US military said

* eleven US soldiers were wounded and at least on Iraqi insurgent was killed in an attack on a US army camp outside Ramadi, west of the capital

* at least one person was killed in a rocket explosion on a busy street in Baghdad

* an Iraqi policeman was shot dead in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk

* on Tuesday night, one US soldier was killed and three wounded in a roadside bomb in Balad Ruz, north of Baghdad.

Burning wreckage

The latest attack was the worst since the 28 June transfer of power, and the bloodiest since a blast in the holy city of Najaf last August killed more than 80 people.

Among those killed in Wednesday's car bombing were 21 people travelling in a minibus, a health ministry official said.


BAQUBA ATTACKS
25 July - Clashes with police leave 13 insurgents dead
7 July - Car bomb during memorial service kills nine
27 June - Six national guards killed at checkpoint
26 June - Three die in grenade attack on political party offices
25 June - Three die in police station attack
24 June - 13 die in town amid co-ordinated blasts across Iraq

"I saw a car overtake a minibus and it slammed right into the queue of people," said Riad Abdul Latif, an internal affairs officer at the police station, who was 100m away when the bomb went off.

Police said young men had come to the police station to join the force. Because of the number of applicants, some had to queue outside.

Yeah, things are turning around in Iraq, for the worse. If this is what happens during the DNC, what happens next month?

posted by Steve @ 1:41:00 PM