Suicide car bombers kill 13 in police station blasts

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Two suicide car bombers attacked a police station Sunday in western Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding 82, police said.
The bombs exploded as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki arrived in Cairo, Egypt, on the first stop of a four-nation regional tour aimed at winning Arab support for his embattled government.
The first driver raced through a police checkpoint guarding the station and exploded his vehicle just outside the two-story building, police said. Moments later, a second suicide car bomber aimed for the checkpoint's concrete barriers and exploded just outside them, police said.
The blasts collapsed nearby buildings, smashing windows and burying at least four cars under piles of concrete. Metal roofs were peeled back by the force of the explosions. Pools of blood made red mud of a dusty driveway. Website guide (http://www.sitefol.com）
An unidentified man with wounds to his hands and one eye staggered through the wreckage.
"All our belongings and money were smashed and are gone. What kind of life is this? Where is the government?" he exclaimed. "There are no jobs, and things are very bad. Is this fair?"
Iraqi police stations often are the target of attacks by insurgents who accuse the officers of betraying Iraq by working in cooperation with its U.S.-backed Shiite government and the American military.
46 police officers injured
The blasts occurred at about 10 a.m. in Baiyaa, a mixed Sunni-Shiite area of western Baghdad, a policeman said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
He said 13 people died -- five policemen and eight civilians -- and that 82 were wounded: 46 police officers and 36 civilians.
The casualty toll could rise as rescue workers sifted through rubble for more victims. Thick black smoke billowed up into the sky and ambulances raced to the location with sirens wailing.
A top U.S. general said Sunday that American forces had no technology capable of detecting all suicide bombers before they strike. Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who is in charge of training Iraqi troops, said the only solution is for Iraqi forces, government officials and civilians to work together to stop the terrorist cells that plan such attacks.
"The unfortunate reality of suicide bombers is that there is no ... magic formula for solving that problem. There is no technological solution that will guarantee that we can prevent ... either a suicide bomber or a suicide car bomber from entering into the populated areas," Dempsey told reporters in Baghdad's Green Zone.
Al-Maliki's trip came at a precarious time for his regime. He suffered a blow last week when six Cabinet ministers allied to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr quit the government to protest the prime minister's failure to back calls for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Al-Maliki is expected to name replacements in the coming days.
On Sunday, al-Maliki was received by his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Nazif, and was scheduled to meet later in the day with President Hosni Mubarak and the head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa.
The meetings come just 10 days before two conferences on Iraq are to be held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. They will be attended by Iraq's neighbors as well as Bahrain and Egypt, and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, as well as other developed countries.
After Egypt, al-Maliki is scheduled to visit Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman