Suicide bombers and other attackers killed at least 62 people in coordinated attacks on Iraqi security forces throughout the country on Wednesday. More than 250 people were also wounded, security officials said, as a total of 14 car bombs wrought havoc for police and soldiers whose ability to protect the country is under close scrutiny as US forces withdraw. The onslaught was launched a day after the US military in Iraq cut its strength to under 50,000. Its spokesman, Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza, called the attacks “desperate attempts” to undermine faith in the Iraqi security forces. The geographic spread of the attacks on the security forces showed that while weakened, the insurgency retains the ability to organize and carry out a nationwide assault involving dozens of operatives under the noses of the authorities. In Kut, 95 miles southeast of Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed 30 policemen and wounded 87 after destroying a police station, said Lt. Col. Aziz Al-Amarah, head of the rapid response police force in the province of Wasit. The blast shattered the building. Burnt-out cars littered the scene as rescue workers searched for survivors. “Parts of the building collapsed and there are still policemen's bodies, including the police chief, under the rubble,” Amarah said by telephone. In Baghdad, a suicide truck bomber killed 15 people and wounded at least 56 others in an attack on another police station, Interior Ministry and police sources said. Parts of the police station in Baghdad's northern Qahira district collapsed and surrounding houses were severely damaged, the Interior Ministry source said. Baghdad security spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim Al-Moussawi blamed insurgents linked to Al-Qaeda and warned of more attacks as US troops end combat operations on Aug. 31 ahead of a full withdrawal by the end of 2011. Moussawi put the death toll in the Baghdad blast at four. Death tolls in Iraq can vary wildly depending on the source. Elsewhere, a car bomb near a police station in Karbala, southwest of Baghdad, and a minibus packed with explosives near a police station in the southern oil hub of Basra, wounded more than 40 people. In Buhriz, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, gunmen detonated bombs near the houses of policemen and raised the flag of Al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate on one of the buildings, police sources said. Five people were wounded. Other attacks in Baghdad, Diyala province, Anbar province and the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, brought the national death toll from the attacks to at least 62.
