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WASHINGTON, July 2, 2005 – At least 12 Iraqis were killed by a suicide bomber shortly after 9 a.m. today in central Baghdad, military officials in Iraq said.
The explosion happened just outside an entry control point for the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, where about 20 people hoping to join the ministry were gathered. A terrorist reportedly walked into the crowd and detonated his vest, which was packed with ball bearings. Iraqi security forces were at the site to provide security and treat and evacuate the wounded. "The people who recruit, encourage and send suicide bombers on their missions have no interest in improving the lives of the Iraqi people" said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, Task Force Baghdad spokesman. "Their only interest is to sow the seeds of fear among Iraqis and to create unrest." Elsewhere in Iraq, soldiers of 1st Battalion, 155th Infantry, 155th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), caught and detained three people suspected of emplacing improvised explosive devices northeast of Musayyib today. A patrol spotted a cordless phone with wires protruding from it in a hole in the road, military officials said. Explosive ordnance disposal team members discovered two 130 mm artillery rounds wired to a long-range cordless phone. The soldiers saw three people lying in a field nearby and detained them for questioning. The 155th BCT is a U.S. Army unit assigned to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In other developments, Task Force Liberty soldiers detained one suspected terrorist with a weapons cache near Zab in Iraq's Kirkuk province today. The cache contained a Draganov sniper rifle, an RPK machine gun, an AK-47 assault rifle and a large amount of 7.62 mm ammunition. (Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)
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