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Journalism of Courage
A suicide car bomber ploughed into a Shi’ite mosque in Baghdad after dawn prayers on Friday, killing 14 people and stoking fears that sectarian divisions over when to hold elections could unleash further bloodshed.
In a second dawn attack in the capital, guerrillas killed at least 11 policemen in an assault on a police station.
Witnesses to the mosque attack, in the staunchly Sunni northern neighbourhood of Aadhamiya, said the car bomb followed an initial blast believed to have been caused by a mortar. During the assault on the police station, the attackers set free about 50 prisoners and set two police pickup trucks ablaze. In an internet statement, the group led Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the attack. In Mosul, several people were killed when US and Iraqi forces came under fire from insurgents.
In Germany, where Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is visiting for talks with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, police arrested three Iraqis in raids on several cities. The raids were launched after police in southwest Germany intercepted a series of increasingly ‘‘hectic’’ phone conversations pointing to an attack on Allawi.
