Two suicide bombers attacked a large crowd of police special forces south of Baghdad on Monday, killing some 30 policemen and wounding nearly 100, an Interior Ministry official said.
Capt. Muthana Khalid Ali said the attack took place at 9:15 a.m. in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, when two suicide bombers wearing explosive belts blew themselves up in the middle of a group of policemen.
Iraqi police and soldiers immediately cordoned off the area, which was covered with pieces of flesh, pools of blood and shreds of clothing.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq said in an Internet statement that one of its members carried out an attack "against a group of special Iraqi forces, allied with the Jews and the crusaders, as they were protesting outside a police station."
In another development, an Iraqi air force helicopter crashed Monday killing four American troops and an Iraqi on board, <i>dpa</i> reported. The helicopter came down in the province of Diyala, northeast of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, U.S. troops detained the head of Iraq's largest Sunni Muslim political party during a house raid early Monday in western Baghdad, a top party official and police said.
Mohsen Abdul Hamid, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, was detained by American soldiers along with his three sons and four guards, said party secretary-general Ayad al-Samarei.
"The party demands the immediate release of its chief who represents a large sector of the Iraqi people," the party said in a statement, cited by The AP. "This irresponsible behavior will only complicate the situation."
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrests. The U.S. military later confirmed it had "mistakenly" arrested Abdul-Hamid, questioned him and released him shortly after. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani expressed "surprise and discontent" about the arrest, adding the presidential council was not informed about it.
In the meantime, a top Kurdish official died Monday after being shot by activists overnight in the northern city of Kirkuk, a government official said.
Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Barazanchi, the director of internal affairs of Kirkuk province and a former police chief, was shot several times late Sunday, said Ismail al-Hadithi, Kirkuk's deputy governor.
Elsewhere, Iraqi soldiers killed two armed men after they attacked the troops in a drive-by shooting in northern Mosul on Monday, the military said.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
