Iraq Watch: July 16, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber detonated his explosives next to a gas station in the town of Musayyib, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, on Sunday killing at least 54 people and wounding at least 82 more.

The bomber exploded himself next to a fuel tanker truck approaching the station causing the massive explosion which caught nearby homes and businesses on fire. The gas station, located in the city center, was also near a Shiite mosque.

Earlier on Saturday, the British military announced the deaths of three British soldiers who were killed early Saturday morning in a roadside bombing. Two other British soldiers were injured in the blast near the town of Amarah, located 180 miles southeast of Baghdad.

A previously unknown Shiite group, the Imam Hussein Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack in a message posted on an Islamic militant website.

In other violence Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vest inside a police station south of Mosul killing at least six Iraqi policemen and wounding 20 others.

Three Iraqi police commandoes were killeed when a suicide car bomber attacked their patrol near the Dora section of Baghdad. Five civilians were also injured in the attack.

Near the town of Dhuluiyah, a foreign truck driver was killed Saturday when he hit a roadside bomb.

Elsewhere, according to Aljazeera, at least eight Iraqis were killed after two suicide bombers blew themselves up near the Shiite Ijbala mosque in the southern city of al-Hillah. The attack, which occured during afternoon prayers, also injured 12 others and damaged several nearby homes.