At Least Four Dead in Iraq Explosion - Jazeera TV

21/07/2003| IslamWeb

A powerful explosion killed at least four Iraqi police and recruits as they walked out of a training facility in western Iraq, witnesses and police officials said. The recruits had just finished a class about highway patrols in the one-story building, located in the tense town of Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad. Witnesses told that a powerful roadside bomb apparently caused the explosion. As many as six people, most of them police recruits, were believed killed, and many others injured, witnesses said. At least three U.S. helicopters hovered over the scene hours after the blast and military vehicles roamed the city. U.S. soldiers at the site refused to comment and American military officials in Baghdad said they had no information. Ramadi, town along the Euphrates River, has been the site of frequent attacks that have killed Americans as well as Iraqis. Insurgents frequently target police stations and others deemed to be cooperating with the U.S.-led occupation. The explosion happened a day after the release of a new audiotape purportedly from Saddam Hussein that warned of new "trouble for the infidel invaders." The tape was broadcast on the Qatar-based television station Al-Jazeera, and the speaker has characteristics similar to Saddam's style of speech, particularly his slow and drawn-out pronunciation. He also maintained Saddam's usual defiant, yet calm, demeanor. "Oh brothers and sisters, I relay to you good news: Jihad cells and brigades have been formed," the speaker on the audiotape said, addressing the Iraqi people. "There is resistance, and I know you are hearing about this. Not a day passes without them (suffering) losses in our great land thanks to our great mujahedeen," the voice said. "The coming days will, God willing, be days of hardship and trouble for the infidel invaders." At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer said the CIA would assess the tape, and a U.S. intelligence official said the agency could not verify whether it is truly the ousted Iraqi leader speaking.