Two Attacks Kill 14 Iraqis, Wound 49

MOSUL, Iraq - A bomb-laden car plowed through a razor wire fence and exploded outside a police station in the north of the country Saturday, killing nine Iraqis and injuring 45, including policemen there to pick up their pay.

Hours later, a mortar attack hit a Baghdad neighborhood, killing five people and wounding four.

In a separate incident, three U.S. soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division were killed Saturday in a roadside bombing near the northern oil center of Kirkuk. Their deaths brought to 522 the number of American service members who have died since the Iraq war began March 20.

It was unclear if the attack on the police station in Mosul was a suicide bombing or the driver fled before the explosion. U.S. officials have said recent vehicle bombings and suicide attacks in Iraq bear the mark of al-Qaida.

The mortar was fired Saturday night into Baghdad's residential area of Baladiyaat, a predominantly Palestinian immigrant area. The projectile gouged a crater and sent shrapnel flying all around, killing four Palestinian residents, neighbors and relatives said. The fifth victim was an Iraqi who was visiting the area, they said.

On Sunday, residents carried the bodies of the four Palestinians in coffins draped in Palestinian flags from a mosque to their homes before taking them to a cemetery for burial. Some young men in the funeral procession fired rifles in the air, a traditional gesture by Arab while mourning as well as celebrating.

A series of strong explosions could be heard in the center of Baghdad over a period of about two hours Saturday night. It was unclear what caused the blasts, some of which were accompanied by bursts of automatic weapons fire.

A U.S. military spokesman, Capt. Dave Malakoff, said one of the blasts occurred in Baladiyat, but he had no further details.

The fatal attacks were part of a series of violent incidents Saturday on the eve of the four-day Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice. The feast, a major Muslim holiday, commemorates the Quran's account of God allowing the patriarch Abraham to sacrifice a sheep instead of his son Ismail. The Old Testament account says another son, Isaac, was spared.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy chief of staff for operations, told reporters Friday that coalition forces were prepared to deal with any surge in violence during a coming holiday. The start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan last year was accompanied by a sharp escalation in insurgent attacks.

Repeated attacks by insurgents on police, politicians and other Iraqis who work with the U.S.-led coalition have been increasing in an apparent attempt to undermine support for the U.S. occupation authority and frighten the population into avoiding contact with the foreign administration.

Policeman Bassil Shehab, who suffered extensive facial burns and shrapnel injuries in the Mosul bombing, called the attack a "criminal act to kill innocent people. They have no religion, and no faith," he said of the attackers. "Nothing will stop me from going back to work even if something worse happens."

Also Saturday, a bomb exploded under the car of police Col. Adnan Radeef al-Ani in front of his house in Baghdad, slightly injuring five children in the street. Al-Ani told The Associated Press the bomb apparently was triggered by a timer but no one was in the vehicle when it exploded.

In the southern Iraqi city of Basra, a remote-controlled bomb hit a car belonging to a Danish relief organization Danchurchaid on Saturday, wounding two aid workers and several Iraqis, according to the Danish group and military officials said.