BAGHDAD, Iraq — Suicide bombers struck the Red Crossheadquarters and three police stations across Baghdad on Monday,killing about 40 people and injuring more than 200 in a coordinatedterror spree that stunned the Iraqi capital on the first day of theIslamic holy month of fasting, Ramadan.
The string of car bombings, all within about 45 minutes, was thebloodiest attack yet in the city of 5 million by insurgentstargeting the American-led occupation and those perceived asworking with it.
It also appeared to be a dramatic escalation in tactics,suggesting a level of organization that U.S. officials had doubtedthe resistance possessed. In past weeks, bombers have carried outheavy suicide bombings but in single strikes.
President Bush said U.S. progress in Iraq is making insurgentsmore ''desperate'' and fueling attacks.
Sitting next to civilian U.S. Iraqi administrator L. Paul Bremerin the Oval Office, Bush said he remains ''even more determined towork with the Iraqi people'' to restore peace and civility to thewartorn nation.
Defense officials said they believe loyalists of fallen IraqiPresident Saddam Hussein were responsible for the wave of bombings.At the Pentagon, officials described the two days of violence as asignificant spike in attacks that showed some level of coordination-- though how much was still unclear.
One American soldier was killed in one of the police stationattacks and six U.S. troops were wounded, the military said. Iraqipolice Brig. Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim, the deputy interior minister, putthe Iraqi death toll at 34, including 26 civilians and eight policebut not the attackers.
The bombings came hours after clashes around Baghdad killedthree U.S. soldiers overnight, and a day after insurgents hit ahotel full of U.S. occupation officials with a barrage of rockets,killing a U.S. colonel and wounding 18 other people. U.S. DeputyDefense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was in the hotel, but wasunhurt.
''We feel helpless when see this,'' a distraught Iraqi doctorsaid at the devastated Red Cross offices. The Red Cross said 12Iraqis were killed at its office, including two employees.
Baghdad's al Baya'a police station in the al-Doura neighborhoodsaw the most deaths, reportedly 15 including the American. SinceBush declared an end to major combat in Iraq on May 1, 113 U.S.soldiers have been killed by hostile fire.
Gen. Ibrahim blamed foreign fighters for the assault, saying afifth, aborted car bombing was attempted by a man captured with aSyrian passport. ''Some countries, unfortunately, are trying tosend people to conduct attacks,'' the deputy interior ministersaid, without naming those nations.
That fifth bomber was kept by officers from detonating his LandCruiser at a station in the ''New Baghdad'' district. ''He wasshouting, 'Death to the Iraqi police! You're collaborators!''' saidpolice Sgt. Ahmed Abdel Sattar.
In Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, witnesses said Americantroops opened fire, killing at least four Iraqi civilians, after aroadside bomb exploded as a U.S. military convoy passed. The U.S.command did not immediately confirm the incident.
At the offices of the International Committee of the Red Crossin central Baghdad, witnesses said a suicide bomber drove anexplosives-packed vehicle, apparently an ambulance, right up tosecurity barriers outside the building at about 8:30 a.m. Thevehicle detonated, blowing down the Red Cross's front wall,devastating the interior and blowing shrapnel and debris over awide area.
Then, in quick succession, explosions went off at the al-Baya'a,al-Shaab and al-Khadra police stations. Ambulances, sirens wailing,crisscrossed the city all morning.
''From what our indications are, none of those bombers got closeto the target,'' U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Hertling said. But theexplosions outside police stations left streetscapes of broken,bloody bodies and twisted, burning automobiles.
Hertling said he believed the attacks may have been timed withthe start of Ramadan to heighten tensions during the fasting month,when Muslims abstain from food and drink during daylight hours.
Near the three-story ICRC building, cigarette vendor GhaniKhadim, 50, said he saw an Iraqi ambulance approach the smallcompound some 100 yards away. The explosion blew out windows andinjured his wife and daughter in his house behind his stand, hesaid.
The vehicle had stopped some 60 feet in front of the Red Crossheadquarters, ''at a line of barrels we have had in front toprotect the building,'' one Red Cross employee, who would not givehis name.
The blast knocked down a 40-foot section of the ICRC front wall,demolished a dozen cars and apparently broke a water main, floodingthe streets.
The inside of the building was heavily damaged, littered withshattered glass, doors blown off their hinges, toppled bookcasesand collapsed ceilings. A gaping crack had opened in a back wall,some 100 yards from the blast site, where a crater some five yardsacross quickly filled with water.
The Red Cross staff member said someone began firing off anautomatic weapon immediately after the explosion -- ''100 bulletsor more.'' He said he believed it was a gunmen somehow associatedwith the bomber ''who wanted to scare people more.''
ICRC staffers said about 25 people were present at the officesat 8:30 a.m.
''Of course we don't understand why somebody would attack theRed Cross,'' Red Cross spokeswoman Nada Doumani said. ''The RedCross has operated in this country since 1980, and we have not beeninvolved in politics.''
In Geneva, Red Cross spokesman Florian Westphal said the ICRChad disclosed in August that it had received warnings of a threatand had been reducing its staff since a Sri Lankan staffer waskilled July 22 south of Baghdad.
''It's a big shock,'' Westphal said. ''It is obviouslyimpossible to move onto a normal day's business, so we really haveto step back and take stock.''
Two buildings away, the explosion devastated the interior of theAl-Nawal private polyclinic operated by Dr. Jamal F. Massa, 53, whohad been planning to open it as a full-fledged hospital nextmonth.
''We feel helpless when we see this,'' he said. He said hecouldn't understand why the Red Cross was targeted. ''This onlyhurts guards and other Iraqis.''
The Red Cross and other international aid organizations hadreduced their Baghdad staffs after the car bombing of U.N.headquarters Aug. 19, in which 23 people died.
Mouwafak al-Rabii, a Shiite Muslim member of the U.S.-appointedIraqi Governing Council, said the United States must speed up thetraining of Iraqi police and soldiers and employ ruthless measuresto crush the insurgency.
''There is no doubt about it that we need to change the rules ofengagement with these people,'' al-Rabii told CNN. ''The rules ofengagement now are too lenient.''
The rocket attack Sunday struck the Al-Rasheed Hotel, whereWolfowitz was staying at the end of a three-day Iraq visit. Thedeputy defense secretary said afterward that attack ''will notdeter us from completing our mission'' in Iraq.
But the bold blow at the heart of the U.S. presence here clearlyrattled U.S. confidence that it is defeating Iraq's shadowyinsurgents.
Associated Press reporters Lourdes Navarro and Sabah Jergescontributed to this report.
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