At least eleven people have been reported killed in attacks on an Iraqi police station, a U.S. military convoy, and a Spanish air force sergeant.
Driving a 1991 white Oldsmobile sedan, packed with explosives, a suicide bomber entered the front gate of the police station in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. When the driver failed to obey demands to stop, Iraqi police opened fire on the vehicle, detonating an explosion that could be heard several kilometers away.
According to U.S. and Iraqi officials, the dead included Iraqi police officers, as well as several civilians who were painting the outside of the police station. Several other people were wounded.
Iraqi police say there was a large crowd of people near the station when the vehicle exploded. The blast occurred as police were heading to the station to collect their monthly paychecks.
Shortly after the blast dozens of U.S. military troops, using their vehicles and barbed wire, cordoned off the area, as several hundred Iraqi citizens rushed to the scene to see what had happened.
Several other Iraqi police stations have been attacked since the conclusion of major combat operations to oust Saddam Hussein. Loyalist followers of the former dictator are accused of targeting Iraqis they perceive to be working with the U.S.-led coalition.
Meanwhile, a U.S. soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on a military convoy about 65 kilometers northeast of Baghdad near the town of Baquba. The U.S. military says 92 American soldiers have been killed by hostile fire since May 1.
In another incident, a Spanish air force sergeant was killed by gunfire, as he was leaving his home. The sergeant, Jose Antonio Bernal, was attached to the embassy in Baghdad. Spain also has about 1300 troops in Iraq.
