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Iraq violence round-up
Gunmen killed Baghdad's governor in Iraq's highest-profile assassination in eight months and a suicide bomber killed 11 people at a police checkpoint on Tuesday in an escalating campaign to wreck the Jan. 30 election. The shooting of Governor Ali al-Haidri in a roadside ambush showed insurgents' power to strike at the heart of the governing class, raising fresh doubts as to whether security forces can protect politicians and voters as the ballot draws near. A group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, behind most of the bloodiest attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, claimed responsibility for the assassination, saying its fighters had struck down a "tyrant and American agent." The group said it was also behind the suicide bombing. Insurgents also killed three U.S. soldiers in a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad; another soldier in a bomb blast in Balad north of the capital; and an American Marine in western Iraq. In a fresh sign of political divisions over the election, Iraq's president urged the United Nations to look into whether the country should hold the polls as scheduled even though other officials have vowed to stick to the timetable. Haidri's assassination took place hours after a bomber rammed a fuel truck into a roadblock near Baghdad's Green Zone, home to the Iraqi government and the U.S. and British embassies. The vehicle went up in a giant fireball that rocked the capital. The blast killed eight police commandos and three civilians and wounded 60 people, bringing fresh scenes of bloodshed to Baghdad's streets a day after 17 security men died in a string of ambushes and explosions across the country. "A lion from the martyrs' brigade of the Qaeda Organization for Holy War in Iraq attacked a security headquarters in Baghdad's Qadissiya area, causing many casualties," said a statement posted on an Islamist Web site. The attacks were the latest in a drive by Sunni insurgents trying to force out U.S.-led forces, cripple the American-backed interim government and scare voters away from the polls. Iraqi leaders say guerrillas also want to provoke sectarian civil war. Voicing sadness at Haidri's assassination, Secretary of State Colin Powell said: "It once again shows that there are murderers and terrorists and former regime elements in Iraq that don't want to see an election. "They want to go back to the tyranny of the Saddam Hussein regime and that is not going to happen," he told a news conference in Thailand. Haidri and one of his bodyguards were killed when gunmen opened fire on his car in western Baghdad, police sources said. He was the most senior official assassinated in the city since the head of the then Governing Council was killed last May. Tuesday's powerful explosion hit a roadblock near the police commando headquarters on the outskirts of the Green Zone. The choice of targets again showed the vulnerability of Iraq's new security branches, which have gained a reputation for ineffectiveness even as they undergo crash training to take over eventually from American-led forces. A roadside bomb blew up near a convoy of American four-wheel drive vehicles near the northern town of Baquba, killing three National Guards in an escort vehicle, police said. Four security contractors, three Britons and an American, were killed Monday in a bombing in Baghdad, a Western diplomat said. Adding his voice to a renewed push for a possible delay in this month's ballot, Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni politician, said the election would fail if a raging insurgency kept a significant number of Iraqis away from voting stations. "On a logical basis, there are signs that it will be a tough call to hold the election," he told Reuters. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-01-05 |
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