Truck bomb kills at least 50 in Iraq
Four police officers die in separate attacks
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Iraqis walk near a car damaged in a bombing Tuesday south of Baghdad.
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A truck bomb explodes outside an Iraqi police station, killing dozens of potential recruits. CNN's Brent Sadler reports.
CNN's Bill Hemmer talks to coalition officials about a deadly attack south of Baghdad and other violence in Iraq.
CNN's Barbara Starr on a captured letter calling for al Qaeda to help start an Iraqi civil war.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A bomb that killed at least 50 people near an Iraqi police station on Tuesday had some "fingerprints" of al Qaeda, a U.S. Army spokesman said.
The vehicle bomb was detonated near an Iraqi police station in Iskandariyah while applicants stood in line for police jobs, Iraqi officials said.
At least 50 people were killed and three times as many people may have been wounded in the Iskandariyah blast, an Interior Ministry source said.
Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the Army spokesman in Baghdad, gave somewhat lower casualty figures, saying at least 35 people were killed and 75 wounded.
The U.S. military command said its figures could be low since Iraqi authorities are handling the investigation, according to The Associated Press.
An Iraqi Interior Ministry official said a bomb detonated in a pickup truck that had belonged to Saddam Hussein's former intelligence service, and he said it destroyed a portion of a street that also has a courthouse and an office that distributes national identity cards in the mixed Sunni-Shiite town, about 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Kimmitt told reporters that while no group had claimed responsibility, the estimated 500 pounds of explosives in the vehicle had some "fingerprints" of the foreign fighter operations referred to in a seized memo purported to be from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (Full story)
"Large bomb, car bomb. We don't know at this point whether it was a suicide bomber or whether a person escaped from that and detonated it," he said. "Large number of civilians outside of a police station."
He said similar attacks have occurred recently.
"This is indicative of a number of types of attacks we've seen directed against Iraqi civilians and symbols of Iraqi authority which are consistent with some of the other bombings we've seen of late," he said.
Kimmitt told reporters that the purported Zarqawi memo raises concern about the growth of Iraqi security forces, but that "the current strategy that we are implementing is in fact working."
Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor said the memo was shown Tuesday to members of the Iraq Governing Council and he hopes the coalition and Iraq will react appropriately to the memo's chief strategy -- the launching of divisive attacks against Shiite targets.
Kimmitt said that despite the "almost daily" attacks, recruiting police officers hasn't stopped.
Senor said Tuesday the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqis who work with it would not be deterred by attacks.
"We have a lot of good days; unfortunately we also have a lot of bad days like today," Senor said. "The good news is that we have more good days than bad days."
Coalition and Iraqi forces are bracing for more violence from anti-U.S. guerrillas as the country heads toward independence July 1.
In two other separate attacks Tuesday, two pairs of Iraqi police officers were shot as they drove to work in Baghdad, Interior Ministry sources said.
The four officers were killed when gunmen sprayed their vehicles with bullets. In each case, the officers were traveling together. A major and captain who were cousins were killed in western Baghdad; two brothers, both lieutenants, died in the eastern part of the capital, the sources said.
'Fingerprints' of foreign fighters?
The attacks come a day after the U.S. military released parts of the letter indicating Islamic fighters may have asked al Qaeda to help provoke Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority into a civil war.
Military officials said they suspect the 17-page letter was written by al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian believed connected to al Qaeda.
The letter was on a computer disk captured in January along with Hassan Ghul, a man identified as an al Qaeda courier, senior coalition officials said. Ghul identified Zarqawi as the letter's author, one official said.
Military officials said they think the letter was intended for al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan and is a call for help.
The letter, translated from Arabic to English by the U.S.-led coalition, expressed concern about the growth of the Iraqi police, which it calls one of the four main enemies of the guerrillas. The others named are the Americans, Kurds and Shiites.
U.S. officials said last month that mounting evidence suggests Zarqawi was involved in some of last year's major attacks in Iraq, including those on Italian forces, U.N. headquarters in Baghdad and a mosque in Najaf.
Other developments
• The U.S. military said the Army division taking command of Baghdad in April will be a more mobile, less obtrusive force. The 1st Cavalry Division, which takes over from the 1st Armored Division, will patrol a larger area with fewer troops, according to the military. Part of the aim is to cut down on attacks against U.S. soldiers and to allow the Iraqi police and security forces to fill the gap, the military said Monday. U.S. officials said Baghdad needs about 10,000 more police officers. The city, which is the size of Los Angeles, California, has 9,000 trained police officers, said Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling.
• U.S. troops are holding No. 48 on the Pentagon's list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, according to Pentagon officials. Muhsin Khadr al-Khafaji, a Baath Party regional chairman, was taken into custody over the weekend. Officials declined to elaborate on the circumstances surrounding his detention. The capture leaves 10 members of the list at large, a Defense Department official said.
• U.S. Navy divers Monday recovered the remains of an Iraqi policeman lost January 25 while patrolling the Tigris River with U.S. soldiers. The search continues for the lost Americans, Kimmitt said. (Full story)
• Two U.S. soldiers were killed and six others wounded while conducting ordnance disposal operations near Sinjar, a town close to the Syria border, a U.S. military official said Monday. "It's our understanding the accident happened as part of ordnance disposal and not as part of a hostile attack," Kimmitt said. The deaths bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq since the war began to 535.
• A U.N. team's study of whether elections in Iraq are possible this summer is "going extremely well," according to Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The team is expected to meet with a broad range of Iraqis. Annan said he expects to have a recommendation by the end of the month.
CNN's Jane Arraf contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
