Two car bombs exploded outside Iraqi police stations Monday morning, killing eight people plus one bomber and underscoring the U.S. warning that the weekend capture of Saddam Hussein would not suddenly end the struggle for Iraq.
Yet Hussein’s capture was already providing tangible results in the battle against insurgents, U.S. military officials said Monday. Following leads from documents seized during Hussein’s arrest and an interrogation with the deposed dictator, U.S. forces detained a high-ranking former regime member and other suspects whom officials described as key.
Baghdad residents went about the business of daily life still talking, somewhat wondrously, about the recent months on the run of the fugitive dictator. Nothing had changed in their own lives since Hussein’s capture–drivers still languished in gas lines and electricity flickered off and on–but there was a sense that Iraq had experienced a kind of reckoning.
“We’re not scared of anything. Not anymore,” said Jasim Abd Hussein, a 32-year-old police officer, even as he stood outside a smoldering police station that was struck by a bomber in Baghdad on Monday. He talked about the attack and his belief that Hussein’s hold on Iraqi life–the fears and the loathing he engendered–was no more.
“We all came out here to defend our station today–even those on holiday. In Saddam’s time, when Saddam was here, no one would have done that,” the police officer said.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling of the 1st Armored Division said in Baghdad that information from Hussein has led to the arrest of key regime members, although it is unclear if they were among the most wanted, The Associated Press reported.
“There were a lot of things that can be exploited,” Hertling said.
Military sources, in separate interviews, also indicated Monday that the capture of Hussein had given American forces a powerful opportunity to appeal to Iraqi “fence sitters” about the wisdom of supporting the resistance.
“This is a dynamic situation,” said one intelligence source familiar with guerrilla groups operating north of Baghdad. “We have to develop it. There are more moderate types, the fence sitters who . . . may give into the belief of [U.S.] inevitability or decide to actually switch sides and help us.”
Another military planner, who requested anonymity, said U.S. troops would likely begin “an immediate intensification of offensive operations.” Commanders will want “to exploit on the ground [in order] to root out large factions of former regime elements,” he said.
The U.S. military was considering its options Monday as car bombs ripped through police stations in and just outside Baghdad, a day after a powerful suicide bomb in Khaldiyah, north of the capital, killed 17 Iraqis and wounded dozens.
The first car bomb Monday smashed through a concrete barrier at the Zuhour police station in Husseiniyah, 18 miles north of Baghdad, about 8:30 a.m. A Toyota Land Cruiser, driven by a man, exploded in front of the police station, blowing off chunks of the two-story blue and white building, killing seven police personnel and injuring at least 18 others, police officials said.
Police Lt. Col. Amer Nahi Ali said he had been worried about a car bomb at his station because “terrorists have been targeting police” for the past few months. He was at a loss to say whether the capture of Hussein would do anything to stop such attacks or help law enforcement figure out who was behind them.
“Because there are a lot of groups,” Ali said. “Some are Islamic. Some follow Saddam. Some are Fedayeen [fighters] from other countries. So we are confused.”
A second car bomb, hidden in a Peugeot, exploded outside the main police criminal investigation unit in Baghdad about 10 minutes later, injuring at least seven people, police at the scene said.
That bomb apparently was leading the way for a second car that drove into the police station. A gunman opened fire in the station and then fled from the Iraqi police who gave chase, police officials said.
“Maybe these were followers of Saddam, but maybe these are just people who hate Iraq,” said Ali Abdel al Sala, a lieutenant in emergency operations who was in the station during the attack. “I think some countries around Iraq, who hate Iraq, are causing problems.”
U.S. military officials in Iraq have a variety of opinions on who is behind the insurgency. Remnants of the regime may have been responsible for the first few months of attacks, but some military analysts wonder whether the violence is coming increasingly from regionally based groups with similar aims or even a broad network of linked organizations.
Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, in a news briefing Sunday, emphasized that he did not believe Hussein’s capture would end attacks in Iraq or that Hussein was able to direct an insurgency.
Hussein, found Saturday hiding in a hole on farmland near Tikrit with no cell phones or electronic equipment, did not seem to be the ringmaster of a centralized terrorism campaign, Odierno said.
Hussein’s whereabouts remained undisclosed Monday. Coalition officials have said he was transported “down south” for questioning. CNN and an Arab TV station reported he was taken to the Persian Gulf country of Qatar–which Iraqi officials denied.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday that Hussein should be treated like any prisoner of war. Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, on CNN, said Hussein’s rights were being protected as a prisoner of war.
“We are going to treat him humanely,” Sanchez said. “We are going to treat him according to the Geneva Convention.”
