Deadliest attacks on Iraqi security forces since Saddam fell

BAGHDAD, Oct 24 (AFP) - The execution of 43 Iraqi army recruits northeast of Baghdad announced on Sunday is one of the deadliest attacks carried out on the country's fledgling security forces.
Iraqi police, soldiers and national guardsmen are a favourite target in the insurgency that flared up after last year's US-led invasion which ousted Saddam Hussein.
The following is a list of the main attacks on Iraqi security forces in the aftermath of Washington's announcement of an end to major military operations on May 1, 2003:

2004
- Oct 24: Forty-three Iraqi army recruits and their 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 south of Baghdad.
- 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 the northern city of 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, north of Baghdad.
- June 24: Insurgents said to be linked to Jordanian extremist Abu Mussab al-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, north of Baghdad.
- 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, south of Baghdad.
- 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, both north of Baghdad.
- 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.