Iraq police death toll close to insurgency's darkest days

A wave of targeted attacks on soldiers, police, traffic officers and senior officials is steadily picking off the custodians of Iraq's streets at rates that are nearing the darkest days of the insurgency, according to security commanders. As of last Monday, 710 Iraqis had been killed this year with silenced pistols or rifles. At least 600 more had been killed by magnet bombs placed under the cars of officials, according to Baghdad's Major Crimes Unit. Hundreds more have been injured. The killings have increased sharply in the past four months amid fears that the ongoing failure to form a government in Baghdad is fueling a worsening security vacuum. Police colonel Yassir Khadier had heard the warnings from his superiors to look carefully under cars for bombs. He had even given orders to his subordinates to be prudent. But on October 6th, a magnet bomb fixed underneath his driver's seat destroyed his legs. They were later amputated. Magnet bombs have become a feature of daily life in Baghdad, where hundreds of checkpoints are being equipped with mirrors in the hope of detecting explosives fixed to a car's underbelly among the half a million vehicles that snarl the capital's streets every day. They have limited success, according to several of the traffic police given the task of finding the bombs. "More than 35 of my colleagues have been killed recently," said a traffic officer, Louay Shehab (34), in downtown Karrada. "They have been killed by these sticky bombs and by pistols with silencers.