IRAQ: A suicide bomber in a flatbed truck laden with 220 kg of explosives killed up to 40 people outside a Baghdad police station yesterday, the US military said, citing Iraqi police reports.
But Iraqi police and interior ministry sources told Reuters 22 people had been killed and 25 wounded.
Television pictures showed a deep crater in the road as ambulances and firefighters attended the scene. The wreckage of a vehicle smouldered more than an hour after the blast.
The attack was the deadliest since a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a fuel truck on July 16th, causing a huge conflagration that killed 98 people in a town south of Baghdad.
"This is a very cowardly act carried out by criminals, not mujahideen," said a police major who gave his name as Kasim.
Militants have stepped up suicide attacks in a campaign to topple the US-backed Iraqi government. There have been more than 20 blasts in the past 10 days alone.
"The car bomber made a deliberate decision to attack the Iraqi police station," said Maj Russell Goemaere, spokesman for the US 2nd Brigade combat team.
"The terrorists undoubtedly see the improved Iraqi police services as a threat to their operations."
Despite that interpretation, a senior US military official in Washington offered a more cautious view of the ability of Iraqi forces in a report released last week.
"Only a small number of Iraqi security forces are taking on the insurgents and terrorists by themselves," said an assessment provided to the US Senate by Marine Corps Gen Peter Pace, vice- chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Overwhelmed by violence, the Iraqi government hopes to give Sunni Arabs more power in an attempt to defuse the insurgency and ease sectarian tensions.
But Sunni officials on the constitution-drafting committee, who walked out after a Sunni member and an observer were shot dead last week, say they will not return unless their demands, including an international investigation, are met.
In Amman, Iraqi foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari said Iraq would finish writing the constitution and hold elections at the end of the year, even if the once dominant Sunni minority continued to boycott the process.
"It is in the interest of the Sunnis to participate without making excuses," Mr Zebari told Reuters.
"If they do not take part, the constitution will not reflect their hopes and ambitions and the process will not stop. There is a timetable and Iraq has to honour international commitments according to UN resolutions," said Mr Zebari, who chaired a meeting of senior Iraqi diplomats in the Jordanian capital.
Police said gunmen killed a Shia family of four near the southern Iraqi town of Hilla at the weekend. Such attacks have fuelled concerns that sectarian tensions could spark a civil war.