10
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Tuesday, October 28, 2003
THE BATTAL
Baghdad bombings kill dozens, wound hundred)
By Charles J. Hanley
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Striking in rapid suc
cession, suicide car bombers bent on death for
“collaborators” devastated the Red Cross head
quarters and three police stations Monday,
killing three dozen people and wounding more
than 200 in the bloodiest day in Baghdad since
the start of the U.S. occupation.
From north to south in this city of 5 million, the
explosions over a 45-minute period left streetscapes
of broken bodies, twisted wreckage and Iraqis
unnerved by an escalating underground war. The
dead included a U.S. soldier, eight Iraqi policemen
and at least 26 Iraqi civilians.
“We feel helpless when see this,” said an
Iraqi doctor.
Iraqi and U.S. authorities in Baghdad blamed the
coordinated quadruple blasts on foreign fighters
intent on targeting those they accuse of collaborat
ing with U.S. forces. One captive would-be bomber
was said to carry a Syrian passport.
But in Washington, Pentagon officials said they
believed loyalists of ousted President Saddam
Hussein were responsible. President Bush said
insurgents had become more “desperate” because of
what he said was progress in Iraq.
The tactics suggested a level of organization that
U.S. officials had doubted the resistance possessed.
In past weeks, bombers have carried out heavy sui
cide bombings but in single strikes.
Not only were Monday’s attacks coordinated,
they also involved disguise: the use of an Iraqi
ambulance in the Red Cross attack, a police car and
uniform in a police station explosion.
The blasts, which echoed the Aug. 19 bombing
of the U.N. headquarters here, left the Red Cross
and other aid agencies examining whether they
should decrease their presence in Iraq. Paris-based
Medecins Sans Frontieres said it would reduce its
seven-member expatriate team in Baghdad.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said he hoped
nongovernment organizations, contractors and the
United Nations would stay in Iraq despite the
dangers.
“They are needed. Their work is needed. And if
they are driven out, then the terrorists win,” Powell
said in Washington.
The differing theories about who was behind the
bombings underscored the confusion generated by
two days of bold, stunning attacks, beginning with a
rocket barrage on a U.S. headquarters hotel Sunday
that killed a-U.S. colonel, wounded 15 other people
and sent Americans scurrying to safety, including
the visiting deputy defense secretary, Paul
Wolfowitz.
Later Sunday, three U.S. soldiers were killed in
two attacks in the Baghdad area.
Then, at 8:30 a.m. Monday, on a warm, clear
morning beginning the Muslim fasting month of
Ramadan, the first of four thunderous explo-
Bombings rattle Iraqi capital
al-Shaab m
Suicide car bombers struck
outside police stations
One day after a rocket
attack hit the Al-Rasheed
Hotel, car bombers struck
the Red Cross head
quarters and three police
stations across Baghdad
on Monday, killing about
36 people in a spree of
destruction.
m
al-Khudra
AJ-Rasheed
Hotel
Cross
Red Cros
headquarters
Twelve killed,
including two
employees
Fifteen killed
and one U.S.
soldier
IRAQ -
Baghdad
-0'' 1
SOURCES ESRI: MIMA: East View; Associated Press
AP
sions rocked the city.
A police car, somehow commandeered for a sui
cide mission and driven by a man in police uniform,
blew up after entering the courtyard of the al-Baya’a
police station in southern Baghdad, said police Brig.
Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim, the deputy interior minister.
Officers said the blast killed 15 Iraqis and
one U.S. soldier, and the U.S. military said six
other Americans were wounded. American
troops have been working with Iraqi police and
guarding the stations.
Just five minutes later, a second blast sirucil
local headquarters of the International CommitiJ
the Red Cross, a small, three-story building
quiet street in central Baghdad. This bomber,
used a subterfuge — an Iraqi ambulance that ap
ently was able to approach the ICRC offices wiii
suspicion.
“I saw this ambulance driving up toward the;:
Cross, and then suddenly it blew up,” said cigar
vendor Ghani Khadim. The vehicle stopped60i:
from the front of the Red Cross building, at a
tective line of earth-filled barrels, and disintegr;
as it blew a 15-foot-wide crater in the road
The blast knocked down a 40-foot sectionof:
ICRC’s sandbag-backed front wall, demolishej
dozen cars and apparently broke a water ma
flooding the streets. The building’s interior
wrecked — a scene of shattered glass, doors bta
off their hinges, toppled bookcases and collapj
ceilings.
More than 100 staff' members normally w
have been inside, but starting time
changed to 9 a.m. because of Ramadan, and pro!
bly only one-quarter of the normal staff was pres
Red Cross headquarters in Geneva said 12 pea
were killed, only two of them employees, beli?
to be security guards, and the rest apparer:
passers-by.
The Red Cross and other aid organize:
reduced their Baghdad staffs after the car bomb
at U.N. headquarters that killed 23 people.
FBI: Crime stays level for 2002
Volun
Crime rates rise only slightly in 2002
NEWS IN BRIEF
By Curt Anderson
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — When an arrest is
made, it is becoming more common for the
handcuffs to be on a woman, according to an
FBI report Monday that also found the num
ber of crimes reported to police was virtually
unchanged last year.
Arrests of men and women in 2002 are
part of the FBI’s annual look at serious crime.
It found showed a slight increase — less than
one-tenth of 1 percent — to about 11.9 mil
lion murders, rapes, thefts, robberies, burgla
ries, aggravated assaults and vehicle thefts.
Men still accounted for the vast majority of
adults arrested for these and other crimes —
about 77 percent of the total. But women are
gaining ground, with the 1.9 million arrested
in 2002 representing 23 percent. That was a
14 percent increase from 1993.
An even larger jump occurred between
1986 and 1995, when arrests of women rose
by almost 38 percent. During those years,
women were being placed in custody more
frequently for almost all crimes, including
violent offenses such as murder, robbery and
aggravated assaults.
Between 1993 and 2002, women’s arrests
for murder, robbery, burglary, theft and arson
have begun to fall. Increases for women are
most notable for such crimes as embezzle
ment (80 percent higher), forgery and coun
terfeiting (19 percent), drug abuse (50 per
cent), vagrancy (42 percent) and liquor law
violations (49 percent).
Arrests of women for aggravated assault
climbed nearly 25 percent over the decade.
During that same time, aggravated assault
arrests for all offenders fell by 21 percent.
Kenneth Land, a professor of sociology at
Duke University, attributed the rise in female
arrests to societal changes over the past 30
years in which more women have entered the
work force and generally have achieved a sta
tus on a par with men.
“You’re more likely to have situations
where they can be involved as motivated
offenders due to the role changes over the past
decades, as compared to men,” Land said.
The FBI’s annual crime statistics are
drawn from reports to 17,000 city, county and
state law enforcement agencies. A stable pic
ture emerges from the 2002 numbers, with no
major upticks in any category but no marked
declines, either.
Sharon: Israel has no plans to kill Arafa!
JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saidfw
first time Monday that Israel has no plans to kill Yasser Ara 1 :
even as he accused the Palestinian leader of continuing
orchestrate attacks on civilians.
Sharon delivered his assessment as Israel confirmed plans
begin providing services to eight settlement outposts in theWe
Bank. The announcement dealt another blow to the falteringUi
backed peace plan.
That plan, known as the “road map,” calls for a construct;
freeze in Israeli settlements and removal of outposts erecif
since 2001. Palestinians have complained that Israel is unde
mining the peace plan — but have also balked at the requireme
that they dismantle militant groups.
In an other development, Palestinian Prime Minister Ate
Qureia said that he is making progress in talks with Islamicmi
tants about halting fighting with Israel.
Sharon met with a delegation of lawmakers from the Europe;
Parliament, where he was asked about Arafat. Israel’s Cabis
last month decided to “remove” Arafat at an unspecified
response to Palestinian suicide bomb attacks, prompting spe.
lation the Palestinian leader would be expelled or assassinat.
“I don’t see any plans to kill him ” Sharon told the lawmaker;
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WE’VE GOT YOUR NUMBER
2003-04 Texas A&M University Campus Directory
Listings of departments, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other information about A&M, plus yellow pages.
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