A Car Bomb Explosion Kills 6 Iraqis in Fallujah

A Car Bomb Explosion Kills 6 Iraqis in Fallujah as Others Mourn Baghdad Bombings Victims

At least six Iraqis, including school children, were killed Tuesday when a car bomb exploded near a police station in the flashpoint town of Fallujah west of Baghdad. The blast carried out by a bomber occurred when a pick up truck, belonging to the Fao construction company, exploded about 150 metres from the police station in town, where American occupation soldiers come regularly under attack.

Bodies were severely charred and mutilated. This attack comes just one day after a series of car bomb explosions rocked Baghdad. And today was a day of mourning as hundreds of Iraqis marched in a funeral procession for a child and youth killed in the deadly attacks.

Both victims were among more than 43 Iraqis killed in five car bomb attacks targetting the heaquarters of the International Committee for the Red Cross and police stations. 200 others were injured. Debris laid scrambled across the road outside the International Committee of the Red Cross building in Baghdad on Tuesday following a car bomb attack a day earlier.

The spree of destruction terrorized the Iraqi capital on the first fasting day of the holy month of Ramadan. The ICRC said that it is considering cutting back its operations in occupied Iraq.

US President George W. Bush claimed a US progress in Iraq and blamed this progress for Mondays violence.

Bush's words came after a meeting with the administrator of occupied Iraq Paul Bremer and the US military commander there, John Abi Zaid. He said, "What we're determined in this administration is not to be intimidated by these killers. And as a matter of fact, we're even more determined to work with the Iraqi people to create the conditions of freedom and peace. Because it's in our national interest we do so, it's in the interest of a long- term peace in the world that we work for a free and secure and peaceful Iraq. A free and secure Iraq in the midst of the Middle East will have enormous historical impact."

Reacting to reports that the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Monday it was considering cutting back its operations in Iraq after a bomb attack on its Baghdad headquarters, Powell said their work was needed in the country.

Powell said of contractors, non-government organisations, the ICRC and the UN - that if they are "driven out" of Iraq then "the terrorists had won".

For his part UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called Monday's attack on the ICRC "a crime against humanity".

US military leaders appeared split on who was behind the attacks. US Brigadier General Mark Hertling told reporters in Baghdad that the five bombings bore all the hallmarks of foreign fighters.

But Major General Raymond Odierno, commander of the US Army's 4th Infantry Division, discounted that theory, saying foreign fighters accounted for only "a very, very small percentage" of the forces resisting the US-led occupation.

Al Manar correspondent said that clashes erupted in Baghdad overnight between American occupation soldiers and unknown armed men near the US Central Military headquarters.

Meanwhile, US occupation forces killed four Iraqi civilians in the flashpoint town of Falloujah after a bomb exploded in a military convoy. According to witnesses, US troops fired random gunshots towards a group of Iraqi civilians killing four of them and injuring many others.

© Scoop Media