Suicide bombings kill at least 20 in Iraq

BAQOUBA, Iraq – Suicide car bombings in two northern Iraqi cities Tuesday killed at least 20 people and injured more than 50, including one dead and 10 wounded U.S. soldiers, according to witnesses and officials.

To the west of Baghdad, a Marine was killed in action. No other details were available.

And in a brief bit of good news, U.S. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez announced that three Italian and one Polish hostage were freed south of Baghdad. Sanchez did not give any details about the rescue operation other than to say it was conducted by U.S.-led coalition troops and no shots were fired. The three Italians are private security guards, and the Pole is a construction company employee.

But on the same afternoon, seven Turks were reported kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents who claimed their captives had been working for the Americans.

Hardly a day goes by in Iraq without an explosion that kills or maims Iraqis, and Tuesday’s bombings and kidnappings made it clear that those who work with the U.S.-led coalition face retaliation, even after the appointment of an interim government.

The first bomb Tuesday, in front of a 1st Infantry Division installation in Baqouba, tore through an early morning crowd of construction workers waiting to get into the base. Witnesses said a red Mitsubishi car with two people in it came racing up toward the gate and exploded a few feet away.

“The workers who were in the road went falling,” said Baseem Shabib, who escaped injury despite being at the scene in Baqouba, about 30 minutes north of Baghdad. “It was chaos, people were jumping into the river … and I was thinking of death, only of death.”

At least 10 people died, and 15 were injured, witnesses said. Families of victims quickly carried away their bodies in cars and trucks.

In a release, the U.S. military said one soldier died and 10 were injured. The military’s numbers for Iraqi injured and dead were lower than those given by witnesses, possibly because most of the dead were carted off, and many wounded did not seek hospital treatment.

The second car bomb, in the northern city of Mosul, came about an hour later, in front of city hall. This time it was an orange and white taxi carrying three men who were apparently targeting a convoy of two local provincial council officials and an assistant police chief, all of whom survived.

The blasts left nine cars burning, and television footage showed panicked people running in every direction. At least nine people were killed and 25 were injured, according to information released by American and Iraqi officials.