Car bomb kills at least 4 in Fallujah

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- A car bomb exploded Tuesday near a police station on a major street in the tense city of Fallujah, killing at least four people, police said. The attack came a day after a series of suicide bombings in Baghdad left about three dozen dead.\nLater Tuesday, eight massive explosions were heard after sundown in Fallujah, coming from the southern area of the city. U.S. officials in Baghdad said they were unaware of the explosions, which residents described as "deafening."\nThe violence in Fallujah came after a string of bold and deadly attacks in the Iraqi capital targeting the U.S.-led occupation and Iraqis who are perceived as working with it.\nIn Baghdad, the U.S. occupation authority announced that gunmen killed one of the capital's three deputy mayors in a hit-and-run shooting Sunday -- the same day that insurgents hammered a Baghdad hotel with rockets, killing an American soldier.\nThose attacks were followed on Monday with the bloodiest day in Baghdad since Saddam's regime fell more than six months ago. Suicide bombers struck the Red Cross headquarters and three police stations, killing eight Iraqi policemen, at least 26 Iraqi civilians and a U.S. soldier.\nIn Washington, President Bush blamed both loyalists to Saddam Hussein and foreign terrorists for the recent attacks.\n"Basically what they're trying to do is cause people to run. ... That's what terrorists do," Bush told a Rose Garden news conference Tuesday.\nAfter Monday's attacks, aid organizations Tuesday were weighing their role in the insurgency-plagued nation. U.S. officials were unsure who was responsible.\nInvestigators are trying to determine whether a would-be fifth suicide bomber is truly Syrian as he claims, an official of the U.S. occupation authority said.\nThe man had a Syrian passport and investigators are trying to determine if it's authentic, said the official on condition of anonymity.\nIn the northern city of Mosul, the editor of an independent Iraqi newspaper was shot and killed Tuesday by men who followed him up to the roof of his office's building as he made a phone call.\nAhmed Shawkat, editor of the independent "Without Direction," had received death threats for his writings, which have been critical of the anti-U.S. resistance as well as the U.S. occupation, said his daughter, Roaa.\nTuesday's bomb in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, was in a Toyota that exploded in front of a power station and about 30 yards from a school and 100 yards from a police station, witness Hamid Ali said. The target was unclear.\nTawfiq Mijbel, who was badly injured by shrapnel, said he had been driving directly behind the vehicle that exploded. "It stopped in front of the power company. A man got out, while another stayed in the car. A few seconds later it blew up," Mijbel said from his hospital bed.\nKhamis Mijbal, who owns a shop opposite the spot where the car blew up said the blast produced a massive ball of fire and that debris flew in all directions.\nThe school was closed, but police said one body was found inside. Police Col. Jalal Sabri said all the victims appeared to have been bystanders. Sabri said at least four people were dead but the number could reach six. The count was difficult because some victims were dismembered, he said.\nTo the north near Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, two U.S. patrols were ambushed Monday night, wounding three American soldiers.\nIn southern Iraq, an explosive went off as a patrol passed, wounding a British soldier and two Iraqis the military command said. It was the third roadside bombing in the Basra area in the last three days. There have been no fatalities reported.