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Bombers Kill 14 in Iraq; Missile Hits Civilian Plane
By IAN FISHER
and DEXTER FILKINS

Published: November 23, 2003



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HAN BANI SAAD, Iraq, Nov. 22 — A missile hit a civilian airplane in Baghdad
on Saturday, American military officials said, as suicide attackers exploded
huge bombs at two police stations, one of them in this town north of
Baghdad, killing at least 14 people, including two young girls.

With the continuing chaos and violence in Iraq, which American soldiers have
been unable to snuff out, a top Iraqi politician, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, was
attacked by a mortar shell on Friday night at a mosque in Baghdad. But the
shell failed to explode and Mr. Hakim, a member of the Iraqi Governing
Council and brother of the slain pro-American Shiite cleric, Ayatollah
Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, was not hurt.

The airplane, operated by the courier company DHL, was hit by one or two
surface-to-air missiles just after taking off from the main airport in
Baghdad, the military said. The plane, an Airbus A300 jet, was apparently
hit in a wing, an engine caught fire, and it was forced into an emergency
landing at the heavily guarded airport that is a major base for United
States soldiers in Iraq. None of the three crew members was hurt.

Military officials said there had been at least 12 other attempted attacks
on the few civilian flights that operate in Iraq — and this first successful
hit of a civilian aircraft may further delay opening the airport to civilian
traffic and thus postpone one major marker for stability in Iraq.

Attackers have been increasingly successful in hitting aircraft in Iraq:
thirty-nine American soldiers have been killed in four helicopter crashes
since Nov. 2, in which enemy fire either brought down the crafts or probably
caused them to fall.

Forces hostile to the occupation here apparently intended to show their
increasing sophistication and firepower by exploding two huge bombs —
reportedly identical devices detonated almost simultaneously — at police
stations about 20 miles apart north of Baghdad.

Six police officers and three civilians were killed in this small town about
20 miles north of Baghdad, and in Baquba, a restive city another 20 miles to
the north, four policemen were killed along with one civilian, a small girl
walking with her father.

The Iraqi police, trained and paid by the Americans, have been a frequent
target, and on Sunday several policemen said they needed more support — in
money and equipment — to prevent further attacks and take over, as the Bush
administration is planning, more day-to-day security operations in Iraq.

"The American government and the Governing Council — how have they supported
us to manage this enormous task of keeping stability?" said Maj. Raed Ali
Ismael, head of intelligence for the police department in Baquba. "We don't
have proper training. We don't have any support or modern equipment."

Another officer in Baquba, Maj. Hussein Israel Hamed, added, "Our enemy's
technology is better than ours."

At the two bomb sites, many people called, in some anger and frustration,
for the Americans to curb the violence against innocent Iraqis. "We have to
be grateful to the Americans because they liberated us," said Abbas Fadil,
30, as he stood next to a pool of blood left by the small body of Tabarak
Rahman, 6, killed at her family's store across the street from the police
station here. "But we need security."

The bomb here went off around 7:30 a.m., as blue-uniformed Iraqi police
began their shift. Witnesses and the American military said a white
Chevrolet Caprice tried to ram into the station, ringed for security with
large cloth containers of dirt. "We felt a very warm storm-wind, and glass
started breaking," said Ibrahim Khemis, 32, a police officer who was washing
up inside the building before his shift.

The explosion blasted a deep crater into the asphalt outside the building
and ripped away the dirt in the security containers. The Caprice flipped off
the ground into the station's yard as glass and concrete spattered around
the street.