Iraqi capital Baghdad and a nearby town Thursday, October 9, shortly after Baptists resumed mission projects amid hopes Iraq’s security had improved.
The first blast occurred when a suicide bomber driving a 1991 white Oldsmobile sedan, packed with explosives, entered the front gate of the police station in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood, Iraqi and American officials said.
"When the driver failed to obey demands to stop, Iraqi police opened fire on the vehicle, detonating an explosion that could be heard several kilometres away," added Voice of America (VOA) reporter Greg Lamotte in Baghdad.
Several Iraqi police officers, as well as several civilians who were painting the outside of the police station were reportedly killed in the suicide bombing, which also injured dozens of other people.
MORNING ATTACK
Shortly afterwards, sergeant Jose Antonio Bernal, an attaché to the Spanish Embassy in Baghdad, was shot dead outside his home in the Iraqi capital.
Media quoted the Spanish Foreign Ministry as saying that the early morning attack was apparently "done by a number of men with a firearm."
The violence was linked to militants, including remnants of the old regime, who fight against what they see as "foreign occupiers" such as Spain, which has about 1300 troops in Iraq.
Meanwhile, a U.S. soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a military convoy about 65 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad near the town of Baquba, reports said.
And in the Kurdish city of Abril, police say gunmen killed two Iraqi policemen and two civilians, VOA reported.
BUSH DEFENDS
At least 92 American soldiers have been killed by hostile fire since American President George W. Bush declared major combat operations over on May 1.
The Thursday attacks happened six months to the day after U.S. troops drove Saddam Hussein from power and took control of Baghdad. U.S. officials said military police were holding a suspected leader of a resistance movement believed responsible for several attacks on coalition forces, VOA reported.
Despite the bloodshed Bush vigorously defended his policy in Iraq, telling Americans that US security cannot be achieved by "timid measures".
He described Iraq as the "central front" in the US-led war on terror, in a speech to National Guard members in New Hampshire, exactly six months after Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled.
CHRISTIAN CONCERN
Yet the latest violence underscored concern among Christian aid workers that time is running out to carry out what they see as desperately needed mission projects, ahead of bitter winter months.
Mark Kelly of the America based Southern Baptist International Mission urged Christians earlier to pray for Baptists and other believers involved in the distribution of food and other aid programs as well as spreading the Gospel.
"Everyone who serves there would ask that people pray for their safety," he told Mission Network News, Wednesday, October 8.
