Wave of Attacks Kills 67 in Iraq

In a 24-hour wave of car bombs and suicide attacks targeting Iraqi police and American forces, at least 67 people were killed in seven attacks in Baghdad and two other cities.

The swell of violence brought the death toll to more than 365 in less than two weeks.

Early this morning, a suicide car bomb ripped through a square outside local political headquarters in Tikrit, killing 30 people, mostly day laborers waiting to get picked up for work at construction sites, police said.

“Instead of having somebody come and hire us for work, somebody came and hired us for death,” said Abid Oan, who was injured as he waited in a market cafe.

In a similarly deadly attack outside a police recruitment center in Hawija, southwest of the northern city of Kirkuk, 25 people were killed and 35 injured when a suicide attacker detonated explosives as he stood among hopeful recruits, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

In Baghdad, police said, a suicide car bomb directed against their Dora neighborhood station killed three people and injured 10.

In two other bombings, one of them targeting an American convoy in the Jamiaa neighborhood, six people were injured.

After the explosion in Tikrit, American and Iraqi troops evacuated the wounded to a hospital. Faisal Mahmoud, a doctor there, estimated that at least 75 people had been injured.

On Tuesday, twin suicide bombs targeted an American convoy and a river police station in Baghdad, killing nine people and injuring scores.

No Americans were killed in those attacks, but the U.S. military confirmed Tuesday that three Marines had died in separate incidents the previous day.

In Karmah, west of Baghdad, two Marines were slain by indirect fire, while in Nassir Wa Salaam, also west of the capital, a third Marine was killed in an explosion.

As Marines continued a major offensive in western Al Anbar province, gunmen kidnapped the governor and his son, who were traveling from the city of Qaim near the border with Syria to Ramadi. Wire services said the kidnappers were affiliated with insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, but there were conflicting reports about their demands. Associated Press said they had called for U.S. troops to withdraw from the area, but Reuters said they wanted the governor’s tribe to release some Zarqawi followers it has detained.

Al Anbar, a region dominated by Sunni Muslims, who were favored under Saddam Hussein’s rule, has remained largely ungovernable since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Another governor of the province resigned last year after his three sons were kidnapped and he was forced to appear in a video, apologizing for having worked with Americans.

Tuesday’s kidnappings and suicide attacks continued a swell of violence since the formation of a new government less than two weeks ago. Since then, more than 300 people have been killed.

About 9:45 a.m. Tuesday, a U.S. military convoy drove through Baghdad’s bustling Nasr Square, where people were seated at small restaurants and outdoor cafes, having breakfast and tea. As the convoy passed, a car bomb went off outside a movie theater, tearing off the facade of a neighboring building and hurling cars and tables across the plaza.

Abdullah Jasim Mohammed, 45, was driving a minibus full of passengers behind the convoy when the bomb went off. Glass shards flew into his head and arms.

“People saw a suicide attacker ramming into the armored vehicle,” he said. The car in front of Mohammed “was terribly damaged,” and the driver fell to the ground after escaping from the car, he said.

Soon after the explosion, burned cars, school papers and the remains of ice cream cones and sandwiches littered the square.

Stunned-looking survivors stood by their destroyed shops, many bloodied from their wounds or from helping others into ambulances. More than 46 people were injured in the explosion, some critically, hospital officials said.

About an hour later, another suicide bomber rammed a car into a police station a few miles away on the banks of the Tigris River. Three officers were injured, Iraqi officials said.

Iraq’s new government faces two challenges in curtailing the violence: recruiting and training new security forces, and figuring out how to deal with more experienced officers who may be tainted by their links to Hussein’s Baath Party.

The army “needs collective experience and long training,” new Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi told Al Arabiya television in an interview Monday. Though he said those with a bloody past would not be hired for security jobs, he said the experience of some former Baath Party officials could be useful. “I wish the ministry to be the gathering point of all the Iraqis,” he said.

Dulaimi, a Sunni who was a lieutenant colonel in Hussein’s intelligence service before leaving the country, was approved as defense minister a few days ago by the National Assembly.

His was among the final appointments to the government, which is now beginning work on a constitution. On Tuesday, lawmakers announced the lineup of a committee charged with creating a draft by Aug. 15.

Meanwhile, a Sunni political group said several of its members were still being held after two joint raids by American and Iraqi troops Sunday night in Baghdad.

Mohammed Dayini of the National Dialogue Council, which favors participation in the government, said 17 people had been detained in a raid on council offices but were released.

In a simultaneous raid a few miles away, he said, soldiers detained Hassan Zaidau Lihabi, a member of the council; his son; and 13 of his guards. Eight of the guards were released, but the others remained in custody, Dayini said.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman denied that Americans were involved.

Times staff writers Saif Rasheed, Raheem Salman and Shamil Aziz in Baghdad and a special correspondent in Tikrit contributed to this report.