CNN REPORTS: WHEELCHAIR BOMBER KILLS 3 IN IRAQ

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A man in a wheelchair blew himself up Monday in a northern Iraqi police station, killing three National Police officers, including a commander, police said.
The attack also wounded nine officers on the police force, which the Iraqi Interior Ministry operates.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/02/25/iraq.main/index.html

The bombing in Samarra raises concern about the recent tactics employed by insurgents in Iraq. Bombs have been placed inside dead animals and hidden in carts. And in recent days, vagrants have been involved in bombings.

"As a sign of desperation, some of those terrorists resorted to some new methods and techniques," said Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, spokesman for Baghdad's security plan.

One of the tactics is the use of remote-controlled "sticky" bombs, small enough to tape under vehicles.

A high-ranking Samarra police official said the disabled man came to meet with Brig. Gen. Abdul Jabbar Rabei Muttar, deputy commander of security, at the security operations building in Samarra. The pair met last week as well.

The man was searched when he entered the building, but police didn't look under his wheelchair seat, where the explosives had been placed. The man, who police say was cogent, detonated the explosives when Muttar approached him.

Also Monday, a roadside bomb exploded in the middle of a crowd of Shiite Muslims in Baghdad, killing three people and wounding 15, an Interior Ministry official said.

The strike, in southeastern Baghdad's Zafaraniya district, is the latest attack against pilgrims trekking to Karbala for al-Arbaeen, one of the holiest days of the Shiite religious calendar. It falls on Wednesday.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber in Iskandariya killed at least 45 people and wounded 68 others, and armed militants attacked pilgrims in southern Baghdad, killing three and wounding more than 30 others.