Two bombings kill 12, including 3 U.S. soldiers
Top U.S. commander in Iraq says more attacks are likely
 |
Reports says up to nine people were killed Saturday in the blast in Mosul.
Story Tools
VIDEO
|
Three U.S. soldiers are among the dead in two explosions in northern Iraq.
Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan take part in the biggest U.S. troop rotation since World War II.
Ex-weapons inspector David Kay says almost all were wrong about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs.
|
SPECIAL REPORT
|
|
|
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two bombings in Iraq on Saturday killed 12 people, including three U.S. soldiers, and wounded at least 45 others, according to the U.S. military and news agency reports.
A car bomb exploded early Saturday at a police station in the northern city of Mosul. It was payday at the station. The blast killed nine people and wounded at least 45 others, according to news reports.
There were no U.S. casualties, said U.S. Army Maj. Trey Cate. Fire and rescue teams are on the scene, as are U.S. forces, Cate said.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of coalition ground forces, said more such attacks are likely.
"What we're seeing here is clearly a continued attempt and a more concentrated effort by the enemy to try to get all the Iraqis that are cooperating with the coalition to break away and not provide us that support that is so crucial to getting to economic progress and the transition to sovereignty," Sanchez said.
Also Saturday, a roadside bomb attack on a U.S. Army convoy traveling between the northeast Iraqi towns of Tikrit and Kirkuk killed three soldiers.
A military spokesman told CNN that the attack on soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division happened 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Kirkuk. The deaths bring to 524 the number of U.S. forces killed in the Iraq war, including 366 from hostile fire.
Witnesses to the Mosul attack told The Associated Press that they saw severed limbs and decapitated bodies in the street in front of the police station after the explosion. The police station was crowded when the bomb detonated, police Lt. Mohammed Fadil told the AP.
Some witnesses told the AP it appeared that a car drove through a security barricade in front of the police station before exploding.
One policeman said the blast was so powerful that there were casualties inside the building.
The police station is next to the University of Mosul campus. Mosul is about 225 miles (362 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad.
On Saturday night, a blast rocked a densely populated Baghdad neighborhood southeast of the city center. An eyewitness said two rockets slammed into the neighborhood, an enclave long populated by Palestinian refugees, and he said he believes there were many casualties.
The attacks occurred a day before the start of the four-day Eid al-Adha, or Feast of Sacrifice, a main Muslim holiday.
The latest bombings come a day after the United Nations said it expects to send advisers to Iraq soon to assess the possibility of holding direct elections before the country regains its sovereignty. (Full story)
The United States has said it isn't practical to hold direct elections for a transitional national assembly before a sovereign Iraqi government takes control June 30. The Americans have suggested a caucus-style plan to choose the legislature by the end of May.
Adnan Pachachi, who is serving his last day in the one-month rotating presidency of the Iraqi Governing Council, told reporters Saturday that the council will decide how to choose a transitional assembly and will not be bound by U.N. findings. He said the United Nations is serving in an advisory capacity only.
"The United Nations presents to us recommendations, not decisions, and we are to decide if we accept these recommendations or not," Pachachi said.
Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and others favor direct elections over caucuses.
A U.S. military official predicted the walk-up to independence could spawn more violence in Iraq.
"As we get closer to Iraqi sovereignty, we expect to see an uptick in the amount of violence that we have in the country of which we are fully prepared to handle," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.
Other developments
• NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he believes the Atlantic alliance would be open to a request for a greater military commitment in Iraq once the country regains its sovereignty. (Full story)
• Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona told the AP that an independent investigation is needed to look into apparent intelligence failures on Iraq's weapons capabilities as well as flawed estimates on Iraq, North Korea and Libya. Former top U.S. weapons inspector David Kay told a Senate panel this week that no large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. The Bush administration had cited such weapons as a key reason in going to war. (Full story)
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
