An explosives-laden truck speeding toward a police station collided with a bus at an intersection before dawn Wednesday, killing at least 10 Iraqis amid a surge of violence since the weekend arrest of Saddam Hussein.Twenty people also were injured in the attack in al-Bayaa, a poor district in southwest Baghdad, hospital officials said. Ahmed Kadhim Ibrahim, deputy interior minister, said the dead were Iraqis, and that the truck driver had planned to strike the police station.
The charred, crumpled bus lay in the intersection after the blast. Body parts were scattered in the area. A pink plastic sandal was left in the street. Two cars nearby were destroyed.
U.S. soldiers arrived and took photographs of the shattered remains of the truck."I was leaving home when I heard an explosion and saw cars burning at al-Bayaa intersection," said Ahmed Ayyoub, a 23-year bus driver.
"I ran to the place to see if there were people injured. There were lots of human remains on the sidewalks and we started collecting them," he said. The rescue effort was more difficult because it was still dark at the time of the blast, he said.
Suicide bombers have frequently targeted Iraqi police stations in strikes at what they view as collaborators with the U.S.-led occupation authorities.
The coalition scored a major victory over the weekend with Saddam's capture. But violence has continued in predominantly Sunni areas west and north of Baghdad, once Saddam's power base, as his loyalists react to the detention.
On Wednesday, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council said the U.S. military is holding Saddam in the Baghdad area. U.S. officials have previously confirmed that the former dictator was at an undisclosed location in Iraq.
"He is still in greater Baghdad," said council member Mouwafak al-Rubaie. "Maybe he will stay there until he stands trial."
Al-Rubaie spoke at a news conference where council members issued a statement asking for Iraqis to seek reconciliation following the capture of Saddam. The council has established a war crimes tribunal and hope to try Saddam for human rights abuses. Council member Adnan Pachachi said "all stages of the trial will be public."
The bomb in Baghdad followed other bombs earlier this week in Baghdad, as well as ambushes by Saddam loyalists of a U.S. patrol in Samarra, the storming of the office of a U.S.-backed mayor in Fallujah and battles with American troops in Ramadi.
The 4th Infantry Division and Iraqi forces started a new series of raids, dubbed Operation Ivy Blizzard, on Wednesday in Samarra.
Backed by armored vehicles and Apache helicopters, U.S. troops conducted door-to-door searches designed to stamp out guerrilla resistance in the restive town. At least a dozen people were detained.
"Samarra has been a little bit of a thorn in our side," said U.S. Army Col. Nate Sassanan. "It hasn't come along as quickly as other cities in the rebuilding of Iraq. This operation is designed to bring them up to speed."
Assailants have attacked the al-Bayaa station in Baghdad several times. Four days ago, police said, attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades at the station. U.S. soldiers left the station after that attack at the request of Iraqi police who believed the American presence was provoking attacks.
Medhat Ghanem, 32, said he was on the sidewalk waiting for a bus when he saw a yellow truck speed down the main road and explode.
"After the explosion, I fell to the ground and was unconscious for a bit. Then I found that my leg was broken," Ghanem said in a hospital where his leg was put in a cast.
Ibrahim blamed the bomb Wednesday on Saddam's supporters.
"They were trying to avenge the cowardly leader, whom they saw as a hero in the past," Ibrahim said.
At least four people were injured at a pro-Saddam demonstration in the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday, witnesses said. They said passengers in a car opened fire on the protesters.
As soldiers fought off angry protesters and guerrilla attacks Monday night and Tuesday, the 4th Infantry Division said it had snared a leader of the insurgency and 78 other people in a raid north of Baghdad, not far from where Saddam was found three days earlier.
A roadside bomb wounded three American soldiers in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, and a pro-Saddam demonstration Tuesday in Mosul ended in violence, with a policeman killed and a second injured.
President Bush said Saddam deserved the "ultimate penalty" but it would be up to the people of Iraq to decide whether he should be executed. In an interview with ABC News, the president also said Iraqis are "capable of conducting the trial themselves."
The United Nations, the Vatican and many countries worldwide - especially in Europe - oppose putting Saddam on trial before any court that could sentence him to death.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, said Tuesday in Baghdad that military planners were preparing for American troops to stay in Iraq for up to two more years despite capturing the former Iraqi leader.
The 4th Infantry Division raid in the village of Abu Safa, near Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, began late Monday after insurgents in Samarra ambushed U.S. forces. The U.S. military said its troops killed 11 of the attackers, who released a flock of pigeons to signal one another that the American patrol was in range. No Americans were hurt.
By early Tuesday, U.S. troops arrested Qais Hattam, the No. 5 fugitive on the 4th Infantry's list of "high value targets," said Capt. Gaven Gregory. The guerrilla leader was described as a major financier of insurgents who have been fighting the U.S.-led coalition for months.
Hattam is not on the U.S. list of the 55 most wanted Iraqis. Thirteen fugitives from that list remain at large.
