Insurgents shot dead Baghdad's deputy police chief and his son yesterday while a roadside bomb exploded in southwestern Baghdad, destroying a heavily armored Bradley Fighting Vehicle and killing two American soldiers, the military said. The Bradley is one of the more heavily armored vehicles in the US arsenal, suggesting that the bomb was quite powerful. Four American soldiers were wounded in the blast, which came four days after a powerful roadside bomb hit another Bradley, killing all seven US soldiers inside and destroying the vehicle. The US military had earlier said yesterday's blast destroyed an Abrams battle tank, but later corrected that. Scores of police and regional government officials have been assassinated in recent months, part of the insurgents' campaign to try to instill fear ahead of the vote and to hunt down people who are perceived as collaborators with the US-led coalition. Baghdad's deputy police chief, Brig. Amer Ali Nayef was assassinated with his son, Lt. Khalid Amer, also a police officer. They were killed in Baghdad's south Dora district while traveling in a car on their way to work, Interior Ministry spokesman Capt. Ahmed Ismail said. Gunmen sprayed machine-gun fire from two cars which were driving parallel with the police chief's vehicle, before fleeing the scene of the attack close to his home, police said. The two were alone in their car. Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group led by Jordanian militant Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi, posted a statement on the Internet claiming responsibility for the Baghdad assassinations. It described Nayef and Amer as foreign "agents," and warned Iraqis cooperating with the US-led military that they would meet the same fate.
In a separate attack yesterday, a suicide car bomb exploded in the courtyard of a police station in southern Baghdad yesterday, killing at least four policemen and wounding 10 others, police and witnesses said. A fake police car packed with explosives was used in the attack. The explosion took place at 8 a.m. in the Zafarniyah district, Police Commissioner Abdul Khaleq Hussein said. Witnesses said the explosion occurred as policemen were changing shifts. The Army of Ansar Al-Sunnah, one of the most violent militant groups in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement posted on its website, the group said it struck "apostate forces who are the henchmen of crusader forces in Iraq."