Deadliest attacks on Iraqi security forces since Saddam fell

BAGHDAD, Nov 7 (AFP) - The execution of 21 Iraqi policemen after gunmen stormed police stations on Sunday is the latest in a string of bloody attacks on the country`s fledgling security forces.
Police, soldiers and national guardsmen are a favourite target in the insurgency that has raged in the aftermath of last year`s US-led invasion which ousted Saddam Hussein.
The following is a list of the main attacks on security forces in the aftermath of Washington`s announcement of an end to major combat on May 1, 2003. Many have been claimed by militants led by Iraq`s most wanted man, the Jordanian born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

2004
- Nov 7: Twenty-one policemen are shot dead, execution style, after gunmen storm two police stations in neighbouring areas in the restive Iraqi province of Al-Anbar.
- Nov 6: An apparently coordinated torrent of car bombs and clashes against police and local government targets in the city of Samarra leaves at least 33 people dead. Claimed by Zarqawi`s Al-Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers (Iraq).
- Nov 4: Twelve National Guard members are abducted and killed in the troubled town of Latifiyah, south of Baghdad.
- Oct 23: Forty-nine Iraqi army recruits and their three civilian drivers are shot dead execution-style northeast of Baghdad.
- Oct 23: At least 20 police and national guardsmen are killed and 47 wounded in two suicide car bombings, one on a police academy in Baghdadi, west of the capital, and another on a national guard checkpoint near Samarra.
- Oct 16: Nine Iraqi policemen are killed when their minibus is ambushed in the rebel area of Latifiyah.
- Oct 14: Fifteen Iraqi national guardsmen are killed in an attack on their station in Qaim near the Syrian border.
- Oct 6: Ten national guard recruits are killed and 24 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack at a military camp in the western Iraqi town of Anah.
- Oct 4: Fifteen people are killed and 84 wounded in a car bomb attack on an army recruitment centre in Baghdad.
- Sept 18: Eighteen people are killed and 63 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on a national guard recruitment centre in the northern city of Kirkuk.
- Sept 14: At least 47 people are killed and 114 wounded in a car bomb attack outside Baghdad`s main police headquarters. Several hours later 12 policemen and their driver are killed in a drive-by shooting in Baquba, north of Baghdad.
- Sept 4: At least 17 people are killed and 36 wounded in a suicide car bombing on a police academy in Kirkuk.
- Aug 5: Nine people, including five police and four attackers, are killed and 23 wounded in a suicide car bombing on a police station in Mahawil, south of Baghdad.
- July 28: Seventy people are killed and 56 wounded in a suicide car bombing in front of a police station in Baquba.
- July 19: A suicide truck bombing kills nine and wounds 62 at a police station in Baghdad.
- July 15: Ten people, including three police, are killed and 27 wounded in a car bomb attack on a police station at Haditha in the western Anbar province.
- July 8: Five US soldiers and four Iraqi national guards are killed in a mortar attack on the national guard headquarters in Samarra.
- June 24: Insurgents said to be linked to Zarqawi unleash a wave of coordinated attacks against police targets across Iraq killing more than 100 people and wounding 300.
- June 17: A suicide car bomber rams a queue of army recruits in Baghdad killing 35 and wounding 140. Six members of the US-trained civil defence force are killed in another bombing north of Baghdad.
- June 12: Five Kurdish army recruits are killed and their bodies burnt after their car breaks down near Samarra.
- June 13: Twelve people, including four police, are killed in a car bomb attack on a police patrol in Baghdad.
- June 5: Thirteen police are killed and 10 wounded in a gun and bomb attack on a police station in Musayyib, south of Baghdad.
- April 21: Bomb attacks targeting police stations around Basra in southern Iraq kill at least 68 people, mostly policemen and schoolchildren.
- March 23: Eight Iraqi police trainees and two civilians are killed when unknown attackers open fire on their bus at Mahawil.
- Feb 23: A suicide car bombing targets a police station in the northern city of Kirkuk, killing 10, including eight police and two attackers, and wounding 40.
- Feb 14: At least 23 Iraqi police and four attackers are killed in simultaneous assaults on a police station and the Iraqi civil defence headquarters in Fallujah.
- Feb 11: Forty-seven Iraqis die in a suicide attack outside an army recruitment centre in Baghdad.
- Feb 10: At least 55 people are killed in car bombing outside a police station in Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad.
- Jan 31: A car bomb explodes outside a police station in the northern city of Mosul, killing nine, including two police, and wounding 45.

2003
- Dec 14: A car bomb attack on a police station in Khaldiyah, west of Baghdad, kills 18, including 16 police, and wounds 30.
- Nov 22: At least 18 Iraqis, mainly police, are killed in double suicide car bombings targeting police stations in Khan Bani Saad and Baquba.
- Oct 27: Explosions across Baghdad target four police stations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, killing at least 43 people and wounding 200.
- Oct 9: A suicide car bomb explodes outside a police station in the impoverished Shiite Baghdad district of Sadr City, killing nine, including the attacker, and wounding 38.

11/07/2004 14:27 GMT - AFP