Bomb Blast Kills Iraqi Special Police Commander
13 October 2006
Iraqi authorities say a bomb blast at a police station south of Baghdad has killed a commander of a special police force and his aide.
Officials say several other policemen and civilians were wounded in the explosion that ripped through the police station in the city of Hillah early this Friday morning.
Iraqi security forces are frequent targets of attacks that have increased since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan about two weeks ago.
A U.S. military spokesman says he expects the violence to worsen during the next two weeks, until the end of Ramadan.
Meanwhile, British army chief General Richard Dannatt said British soldiers can not remain in Iraq "for years and years" and that a plan to complete their mission needs to be worked out.
General Dannatt was conducting a series of media interviews Friday, after his earlier remarks sparked an uproar in Britain.
On Thursday, Britain's Daily Mail newspaper quoted the general as saying the security situation in Iraq is aggravated by the presence of British troops and that they need to be withdrawn "sometime soon."
Britain has about seven-thousand troops in Iraq. And, British commanders have been talking about reducing troop level by the middle of next year.
British troops, who were deployed in four Iraqi provinces, have already handed over security control of two provinces to Iraqi forces.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been a major supporter of U.S policy in Iraq.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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