9 killed in fuel-truck bombing in Baghdad

A fuel truck rigged with explosives raced toward a police station in southwest Baghdad early Monday, exploding in flames and killing nine people and wounding about 60, Iraqi officials and witnesses said.

The Philippines, meanwhile, said that it has completed the withdrawal of its peacekeeping contingent from Iraq, meeting a demand by Iraqi insurgents threatening to behead a Filipino hostage but defying opposition from Washington.

The morning blast outside the police station in the Seidiyeh neighborhood, the latest in a string of deadly attacks on police, came as officers gathered to receive their daily assignments. Insurgents throughout Iraq have used car bombs roadside bombs and other weapons to target police, whom they view as collaborators with U.S. forces.

"We were all standing in a row, listening to our officer as he gave us our assignment for the day," said Mehdi Salah Abed Ali, 32, lying in a bed at al-Yarmuk hospital, a bandage around his leg.

"There were many policemen standing in the square when the tanker exploded," he said. The explosion took place just after 8 a.m.

The fuel tanker attack Monday killed nine people and wounded at least 60, said Saad al-Amili, a Health Ministry official.

The tanker's presence in the industrial area, close to car repair and electrical workshops, did not raise concerns until it started speeding toward the police station, said Ahmed Nouri, a worker at a nearby car wash.

"I was standing with a friend when we saw the tanker speeding in an unnatural way," Nouri said, describing the driver as a young man with a light beard.

The tanker exploded about 490 feet from the fenced in, two-story police station.

In another such attack, the body of Lt. Col. Nafi al-Kubaisi, the police chief of the town of Heet, was discovered Monday at a market in nearby Fallujah, police said. Al-Kubaisi had been kidnapped Saturday from his police station, said police Capt. Nasir Abdullah.

Also Monday, six cars filled with waving Filipino soldiers left their camp in Hillah, south of Baghdad, after paying an "exit call" on the Polish commander at the base.

The troops were the last members of a 51-strong Philippine contingent here that was pulled out of the country to meed the demands of kidnappers holding a Filipino truck driver hostage.

Foreign Secretary Delia Albert said they would travel by road to Kuwait then take a commercial flight home.

"Before the end of this day, all members of the Philippine humanitarian contingent will be out of Iraq," she said in a nationally televised statement.

Some allies have sharply criticized the move, saying it would only encourage more kidnappings.

Source: Agencies