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Dozens of children die in Baghdad car bombings
Rumsfeld: Violence in Iraq 'getting worse'
Thursday, September 30, 2004 Posted: 11:18 AM EDT (1518 GMT)
A woman cries after car bombs explode near a U.S. convoy in Baghdad on Thursday.
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Car bomb detonates near base in western Baghdad.
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U.S. forces strike safe house in Falluja linked to al-Zarqawi.
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Suspected insurgents launched deadly car bomb attacks Thursday in Baghdad, killing at least 45 people -- most of them children -- and wounding scores more in operations aimed at Iraqi government targets.
A hospital official told The Associated Press 35 children were killed.
"We are obviously seeing a major onslaught by the terrorists on Baghdad and some other Iraqi cities," said interim Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh.
The attacks come as U.S. military officials note a record number of car bomb attacks for the month of September. In a radio interview, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld acknowledged the violence in Iraq is "getting worse" and said he expects it to increase in the country as elections approach.
Most of the casualties occurred in western Baghdad where 42 were killed and 137 injured, Yarmouk Hospital officials said.
Around 1 p.m. (5 a.m. ET), two car bombs detonated at the opening ceremony for a sewage plant, also in western Baghdad, according to U.S. military officials. The ceremony was being led by Iraqi officials.
About a half-mile away, another car bomb detonated at an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint, about two miles (3 km) west of Baghdad University, U.S. military officials said.
A suicide car bomber hit a compound used by the U.S. military and Iraqi police in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib neighborhood around 9:40 a.m. (1:40 a.m. ET), killing a Task Force Baghdad soldier and two Iraqi police officers, U.S. military and Iraqi police officials said.
Three other soldiers were wounded, the U.S. military said. The Ministry of Health said 60 more people were wounded.
"This despicable act killed not only a multinational forces soldier, but Iraqis who were merely going about their business of defending this country," said Lt. Col. James Hutton, a 1st Cavalry Division spokesman. "The terrorists offer nothing but destruction."
Police targets killed
An attack Thursday on the Tal Afar police chief's convoy killed four Iraqi civilians and wounded seven others -- five civilians and two police officers, according to a Task Force Olympia officer.
Initial reports received by Task Force Olympia that were passed on by the Iraqi police say that it was a car bomb.
A Mosul police officer also confirmed the incident to CNN. Tal Afar is west of the city of Mosul in northern Iraq.
In the northern city of Mosul, an Iraqi police official was killed, along with his driver, in a drive-by shooting Thursday morning, according to the security chief for Nineveh province.
Another police official was wounded in the attack which killed Maj. Ghassan Mohammed and his driver, according to Maj. Gen. Salim al-Haj Issa.
10 reported kidnapped
A group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq says it has captured 10 hostages, including two Indonesian women, Al-Jazeera has reported.
The Arabic-language news channel broadcast video Thursday reportedly showing three of the hostages. The network's anchor said the hostages worked for an electricity company called Jibel.
The hostages include six Iraqis and two Lebanese, Al-Jazeera said. The group did not say anything about its demands. (Full story)
Meanwhile, the British government said it was ready to listen to kidnappers holding hostage Ken Bigley in Iraq but was not prepared to negotiate with them or pay them a ransom. (Full story)
Elsewhere, two French journalists abducted last month reportedly were close to being freed.
An agreement has been reached with a militant group for the release within 48 hours of the French journalists, negotiator Philippe Berthe told the Al Arabiya network. Berthe said the negotiations did not involve payment of a ransom.
Airstrike in Falluja
U.S. forces struck a suspected safe house in Falluja used by terrorists linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to the Combined Press Information Center.
Three people died and eight others were wounded in the airstrike, an Iraqi hospital official said.
Four children were among the wounded, said the official from Falluja General Hospital.
CPIC did not report any casualties and noted multinational forces "take great care to minimize collateral damage and civilian casualties."
CPIC reported "significant" secondary explosions after the blast, a result of an illegal weapons cache stored in the safe house.
The United States believes al-Zarqawi has appealed to al Qaeda to help start a civil war in Iraq and has led foreign fighters there.
His group is blamed for the kidnappings and beheadings of some hostages, including Americans Nicholas Berg, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, as well as attacks on U.N. and Red Cross facilities.
CNN's Brent Sadler, Mike Mount, Ayman Mohyeldin, Ingrid Formanek, Faris Qasira, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Barbara Starr contributed to this report.
Huh???
Seems like things are escalating all over the world.... 
