IRAQ: A suicide car bomber killed 13 policemen yesterday in an Iraqi city riven with ethnic tension, the latest attack in an insurgency which the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, flew to Iraq to discuss with senior commanders.
Mr Rumsfeld flew in from Kuwait on a C-130 military transport plane that made a rapid descent as it landed in Baghdad to thwart any attack employing shoulder-fired missiles. On his fourth visit to Iraq since the war began, he met US commanders and Iraqi police on a trip partly aimed at assessing whether Iraqi forces can assume more security responsibilities from foreign troops after June 30th, when Washington plans to hand sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government.
Speaking to reporters with Mr Rumsfeld, the chief spokesman for the US military, Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt, said: "It is clear that the Iraqi security forces are not capable of taking over the security of this country (now)." At the UN, the Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, issued a report saying Iraq would not be ready for elections until late this year or early next year - far later than many Iraqis want.
"After more than three decades of despotic rule, without the basic elements of rule of law, a ruined economy, a devastated country, the collapse of state institutions, low political will for reconciliation, and distrust among some Iraqis, conditions in Iraq are daunting," Mr Annan's report said. The carnage in the northern city of Kirkuk in the early hours of yesterday underlined the problems Iraqis face. A suicide bomber rammed a car into a police station in the city, killing 13 policemen and wounding 51 people, police lieutenant Salam Zangana told Reuters.
"He took us by surprise. We didn't even manage to fire a single bullet at the bomber," said policeman Saman Ali. Pools of blood covered patches of snow after the bomber drove his car into the gate of the unfortified police station.