BAGHDAD, Iraq – Two suicide bombers detonated explosives inside Baghdad’s main police academy Tuesday, killing at least 43 people and wounding more than 70, police said. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack, the capital’s deadliest in months.
| In a videotape aired today by Arabic television network Al-Jazeera, al-Qaida’s No. 2 man, Ayman al-Zawahri, called on Iraqi insurgent groups to unite. “I call all … groups to unite and work closely to achieve the coming victory” in Iraq, he said. |
The bombing came as Al-Jazeera aired an insurgent video claiming to have kidnapped a U.S. security consultant – the seventh Westerner abducted in Iraq since Nov. 26 – and the U.S. military reported another American soldier killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad.
The assault on the police academy was carefully planned to maximize casualties, all of whom were police officers or cadets. Iraqi police said the attackers may have been police officers or students.
The first bomber struck near a group of students outside a classroom, a U.S. military statement said.
Thinking they were under mortar fire, survivors rushed to a bunker “where the second bomber detonated his vest,” the statement added. One of the wounded was an American contractor.
The video broadcast on Arabic television network Al-Jazeera showed a blond, Western-looking man sitting with his hands tied behind his back. The video also bore the logo of the Islamic Army in Iraq, an insurgent group, and showed a U.S. passport and an Arabic identification card with the name Ronald Schulz. The spelling of the name was uncertain because it was written in Arabic.
If true, the man would be the second American taken hostage in the last two weeks. A U.S. citizen was among four peace activists taken hostage Nov. 26 by a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness.
Meanwhile, the Marines updated their report on the deaths of 10 Marines on Dec. 1 near Fallujah.
The statement said the Marines from Company F, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, were not on a foot patrol, as previously reported, but were in an abandoned flour mill for a promotion ceremony when they were killed by an explosion. The troops used the mill as a temporary patrol base.
President Bush was to speak in Washington today on Iraq’s recovering economy.
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