Car bomb bid to kill top cop in Baghdad.

Byline: MARK ELLIS 

A CAR bomb bid to murder the Iraqi police chief working alongside US forces failed yesterday.

But one policeman died and 15 were hurt in the blast outside Baghdad's police HQ.

The car, packed with 88lb of TNT, was parked in a yard for impounded vehicles.

It was close to the office of police chief Hassan Ali at the Rasafa station. He was not in at the time.

Acting police chief Hassan al-Obeidi also has offices at the complex which is near the police academy where Iraqi recruits are trained under US supervision.

The explosion showered debris on the HQ. It blew up several other cars and shattered windows.

A police officer at the scene said: "We risk our lives every day. People want to kill us because they think we work for the Americans, but all we want to do is bring security in Iraq."

Lieutenant Colonel Yahya Ibrahim, who had bloodstains on his pale blue police shirt and a bandaged head, said: "We were sitting inside doing paperwork when it went off.

"We did not come here to serve any party or person. We are here to serve Iraq."

Investigators think the bombing could be an inside job, like the attack on the United Nations HQ last month.

Prime suspects for that attack - which killed 21 - are UN security men who had been in Saddam Hussein's secret police.

Apart from the UN attack and last week's assassination bombing in Najaf, a truck bomb killed 17 people at the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad early last month.

CAPTION(S):

HURT: A victim of the blast