Suicide attacks
shake Baghdad

Suicide car bomb attacks on Baghdad’s international Red Cross building and on three police stations left 34 people dead this morning as Iraqi Muslims began observing the start of their holy month of Ramadan.

Police and U.S. military officials said about 10 people were killed at the international Red Cross building in central Baghdad and another 27 died in attacks on three police stations, Fox News reported.

The victims mostly were Iraqis, but there was an unconfirmed report one American soldier was killed.

Meanwhile, three U.S. soldiers were killed in clashes overnight. Yesterday, a rocket attack on a hotel with U.S. officials, including U.S Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, killed an American colonel and wounded 18 other people.

Wolfowitz, completing a three-day visit, was unhurt. After the attack, he said “it will not deter us from completing our mission.”

At a news conference, Iraq’s deputy interior minister, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim, counted 34 Iraqis dead and 224 wounded.

President Bush spoke with reporters after he was briefed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq.

“There are terrorists in Iraq who are willing to kill anybody in order to stop our progress,” the president said. “The more successful we are on the ground, the more these killers will react. Our job is to find them and bring them to justice.”

This small number of killers cannot determine life for the majority of Iraqis, who seek peace and freedom, he said.

“We will find these people and we will bring them to justice,” Bush said, adding “it’s in the national interest of the United States that a peaceful Iraqi emerge. We will stay the course to make sure we reach that objective.”

Witnesses at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Baghdad said the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber who drove up to security barriers this morning in a vehicle packed with explosives. The blast knocked out the building’s front wall and destroyed the interior. Later, car bombs exploded at three police stations in Baghdad.

Iraqi police said about 27 people were killed at police stations. Among the 15 Iraqis killed at the ad-Doura station in southern Baghdad was a U.S. soldier.

Fox News said eight Americans were injured at the newly opened ad-Doura station, operated jointly by Iraqis and Americans.

The attacking vehicle was disguised as a police truck.

An attack at another police station was stopped by officers before a suicide bomber could detonate his vehicle.

“He was shouting, ‘Death to the Iraqi police! You’re collaborators!”‘ said police Sgt. Ahmed Abdel Sattar, according to the Associated Press.

Later this morning, the international Red Cross said it might cut back its operations in Iraq.

“Such an attack is a major blow for us,” agency spokesman Florian Westphal told The Associated Press. “It’s a big shock. It is obviously impossible to move onto a normal day’s business, so we really have to step back and take stock.”

United Nations aid agencies, which already had cut back to skeleton operations due to an August attack, said it is unlikely today’s events would prompt further changes, according to the AP.