Suicide bomber kills 60 near Baghdad

Saturday, July 16, 2005 Posted: 2047 GMT (0447 HKT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a propane fuel tanker parked near a gas station south of Baghdad Saturday evening, killing at least 60 and wounding as many as 100 people, police sources said.
The massive blast occurred in the center of Musayyib along a dangerous stretch in Babil province known as the Triangle of Death about 45 miles south of the capital. Musayyib is predominantly Shiite.

The explosion destroyed a neighboring apartment complex and damaged a Shiite mosque and surrounding businesses, police said.

The tanker entered Musayyib after being searched at the city's entrance and parked at the city center, according to police. The bomber, strapped with an explosive vest, approached the tanker and detonated. Police are calling it a coordinated attack, suggesting the tanker's driver was part of the attack.

In December a suicide bomber exploded a tanker truck filled with gasoline and killed nine people in the Baghdad district of Mansour.
Other violence

Insurgents unleashed more deadly violence across the country.

In a village near the northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside an Iraqi police station, killing six police officers and wounding 16 other people, police and the U.S. military said.

In the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, a suicide car bomb targeting a police commando convoy killed a police commando, a civilian and two children, police told CNN.
Also wounded were 11 people, police said.

The attacks come a day after insurgents launched seven deadly car bomb attacks across the capital.(Full story)

British military officials said three British soldiers died early Saturday from injuries they received in hostile action in southern Maysan province.

They were from the 1st Battalion, Staffordshire Regiment, based at Tidworth in Wiltshire.
Two other soldiers were wounded and treated at a facility near Basra.

According to CNN research, 93 British troops have died in the Iraq war.

Other developments

The U.S. military has charged 11 Task Force Baghdad soldiers with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, military officials said Saturday. A report by a Task Force Baghdad soldier alleges military personnel attacked the suspected insurgents in Baghdad July 13, according to a written statement issued by the task force.

The U.S. military said forces in northern Iraq detained nine insurgent suspects in Tal Afar operations, and seized weapons in Mosul.

Two Katusha rockets struck the Risala neighborhood of Mahaweel, near Hilla, wounding two Iraqi civilians, police said

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