Bring'em On - 34 Dead, 224 Wounded in Five Bomb Blasts

A series of suicide bombings shook Baghdad early today, including an attack on the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross and blasts at four Iraqi police stations that punctuated two days of bloody violence in this capital city.

Iraq's police chief and deputy interior minister, Ahmad Ibrahim, said at a news conference that 34 people had been killed and 224 had been wounded in the attacks. He said 26 of the dead were civilians and 8 were police officers; 65 police officers and 159 civilians were wounded.

The officials differentiated between today's attacks and one on Sunday against a highly guarded hotel where Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz was staying. The Sunday attack was attributed to loyalists to the deposed regime of Saddam Hussein.

An attack on a fifth police station was foiled when the attacker was shot and wounded. American and Iraqi officials said he was carrying Syrian identification and had identified himself as Syrian.

Red Cross Pulling Out

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is to begin pulling foreign staff out of Baghdad after a car bomb exploded at its office there Monday, a senior official said.

The humanitarian agency would continue to refuse military protection, added Pierre Gassmann, head of the ICRC delegation in the Iraqi capital.