BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Insurgents killed 17 Iraqi police and National Guards Monday in a string of bloody ambushes, bombings and suicide attacks aimed at wrecking Iraq's Jan. 30 national election.
Two explosions rocked Baghdad, one of them detonated by a suicide bomber posing as a taxi driver who killed two policemen and a civilian near interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party headquarters.
The other deadly attacks were centered in the restive Sunni heartland north of the capital, raising further questions among Iraqis on how the country's fledgling security forces will be able to protect voters if they can hardly protect themselves.
In west Baghdad, an explosives-laden car tried to ram through a checkpoint on a road leading to Allawi's party offices but hit a police pick-up truck and blew up, setting nearby vehicles ablaze and sending up plumes of black smoke.
The Iraqi militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna, which last week mounted the deadliest suicide attack on Americans since the start of the war with an attack on a U.S. base in Mosul, claimed responsibility for the bombing.
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How crazy would you have to be to take a job as a cop in Iraq?
On the first day they should just issue them uniforms with a bullseye on it...
Two explosions rocked Baghdad, one of them detonated by a suicide bomber posing as a taxi driver who killed two policemen and a civilian near interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party headquarters.
The other deadly attacks were centered in the restive Sunni heartland north of the capital, raising further questions among Iraqis on how the country's fledgling security forces will be able to protect voters if they can hardly protect themselves.
In west Baghdad, an explosives-laden car tried to ram through a checkpoint on a road leading to Allawi's party offices but hit a police pick-up truck and blew up, setting nearby vehicles ablaze and sending up plumes of black smoke.
The Iraqi militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna, which last week mounted the deadliest suicide attack on Americans since the start of the war with an attack on a U.S. base in Mosul, claimed responsibility for the bombing.
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How crazy would you have to be to take a job as a cop in Iraq?
On the first day they should just issue them uniforms with a bullseye on it...