1/5/2005 2:30:00 PM GMT
A car bomb exploded outside a police academy south of the Iraqi capital on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 20 others, police said.
The explosion took place outside the gate of the academy during a graduation ceremony in Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad, police Capt. Hady Hatef said, adding that twenty people were confirmed dead.
Hatef said that the car was trying to enter the compound but the police opened fire at it then it exploded.
The explosion hit at least four vehicles and three nearby buildings, he added.
At least 11 people were killed on Tuesday when a truck exploded at an Interior Ministry commando headquarters in Baghdad.
Wednesday's explosion is the latest in a string of attacks targeting the Iraqi police and government officials ahead of the country’s national elections, planned for Jan. 30.
Car explosion kills two in western Baghdad
Also Wednesday, police officials reported that a car bomb went off in Baghdad’s western district of Amiriyah, killing at least two people and injuring 10 others.
The car was targeting a U.S.-Iraqi joint convoy but exploded near a gas station, officials said on condition of anonymity, noting that all the casualties were Iraqi civilians.
The explosion occurred during the funeral procession of Baghdad's assassinated governor, Ali al-Haidari, in the same neighborhood. It wasn’t immediately clear if the attacker was targeting the mourners who included a number of high-level Iraqi officials.
On Tuesday, unidentified gunmen assassinated al-Haidari and killed six of his bodyguards in Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Haidri.
Top member of Iraq’s main Sunni party killed in Mosul
Also Wednesday, gunmen killed a senior member of Iraq’s main Sunni Muslim Party, which decided last month to boycott the January elections.
"Yesterday Omar Mahmoud Abdullah, a senior leader in the Iraqi Islamic Party was kidnapped from his pharmacy and hours later was killed," the party said in a statement.
"The Iraqi Islamic Party condemns this crime," it added.
Another party official said that Abduallah’s bullet-riddled body was found in Mosul’s eastern neighborhood of Al Wihda seven hours after he was abducted.
The party said that it will not participate in the polls because it believes it should be postponed for six-month due to the deteriorating security conditions.
The preparations for the election in Mosul, Iraq’s third largest city, are behind schedule and there are no signs of campaigning on the streets. The city has witnessed several attacks over the past year.
In other developments;
• Rebels shot dead Iraqi police Col. Khalifa Hassan and his driver in Baqoubah, some 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, doctor Ahmed Fouad of the Baqoubah General Hospital said.
• Four Iraqi civilians were killed and two others were wounded when American troops randomly opened fire after their convoy was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades in central Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad, said doctor Riyad al-Hiti of the Ramadi hospital. The U.S. military media office didn’t immediately comment on the incident.