Bombs, insurgent violence kill more than 50 in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A car bomb detonated by remote control exploded Thursday on Tahrir Square in the heart of Baghdad, killing two Iraqis but missing a U.S. military convoy as insurgent violence claimed more than 50 lives. Clashes between Iraqi police and rebels erupted along a major highway southeast of the capital.

With violence on the rise after the Jan. 30 election, Iraqi officials announced they would seal the country's borders for five days this month around a major Shiite religious holiday. Last year during the holiday, about 180 people were killed in suicide attacks at Shiite shrines.

Around dawn today, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Mosul on a surprise visit to review Iraq security forces and meet with Iraqi and American leaders. Rumsfeld also made a surprise visit to Iraq on Christmas Eve.

Most of the violence Thursday targeted Iraq's security forces, part of an apparent insurgent campaign to undermine public confidence after police and soldiers managed to prevent catastrophic attacks during the elections.

The biggest attack occurred in Salman Pak, 12 miles southeast of Baghdad, when insurgents attacked Iraqi policemen who came to look for weapons, showering them with machine-gun fire, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds, police said.

Iraq's Interior Ministry said 14 policemen were killed, 65 were wounded and six were missing after the two-hour gun battle. Four insurgents also died in the fighting, the ministry said.

American troops evacuated some of the wounded, the U.S. command said, and residents said American helicopters were prowling the skies.

"We were on patrol to search for weapons," wounded policeman Waad Jassim said from his hospital bed. "When we arrived, they opened heavy fire at us. There were many of them, and some were charging out of houses."

Elsewhere, bodies of 20 Iraqi truck drivers who had been shot were found dumped on a road, their hands bound behind their backs, police Capt. Ahmed Ismail said. Some of the trucks were owned by the government, Ismail said.

Gunmen fired on an Iraqi police patrol Thursday in Baqouba, north of Baghdad, triggering a gunbattle that killed a civilian and wounded two police officers, officials said. Assailants also killed a police lieutenant in Baqouba.