A roadside bomb hit a US convoy in southern Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding six, and suspected insurgents gunned down at least eight Iraqis in four separate attacks yesterday, officials said. In New York, Iraqâs foreign minister said insurgents were likely to step up attempts to disrupt next monthâs referendum on the countryâs new constitution, and that the next three months are critical for the countryâs future. âNowhere are the goals of freedom, democracy and progress more at stake,â Hoshyar Zebari told UN Security Council members at an open meeting Wednesday. âWe know our clear way forward, but we need your help. We need the help of every member nation and this organization to win this fight. We stick together, or we lose together.âIn Basra, for the second day in a row no British forces were seen accompanying Iraqi police on patrols of the southern city, as they routinely had in the past, an apparent result of a disagreement between Baghdad and London over recent violence involving British soldiers. On Wednesday, hundreds of Iraqi civilians and policemen, some waving pistols and AK-47s, rallied in Basra to denounce âBritish aggressionâ in the rescue of two British soldiers. Basra Gov. Mohammed Al-Waili threatened to end all cooperation with British forces unless Prime Minister Tony Blairâs government apologized for the deadly clash with Iraqi police. Britain defended the raid. There has been disagreement about just what happened late Monday, when British armor crashed into a jail to free two British soldiers who had been arrested by Iraqi police and militiamen.
| Simple enough. Shut down the Basra civil administration. Throw the cops out and have the Brits pick up police duties until the Iraqis can come up with somebody else. |
Unidentified men in a speeding car used machine guns to kill Col. Fadil Mahmoud Mohammed, a local police commander, and his driver yesterday morning as they drove on a highway in a town near Baquba, a city north of Baghdad, police said. Six people also were killed in the capital, including a man and two of his sons whose home in the New Baghdad area was raided by about 25 gunmen dressed in police uniforms and black masks, said police Col. Ahmed Abod. A second son was kidnapped. Abod said the father, Muhsin Akmosh Al-Timimi, had been working with foreign companies operating in Iraq.
A civilian working for a private company, Ali Salim, also was shot and killed while waiting outside his home in western Baghdad for a taxi to take him to work, said Dr. Muhanned Jawad in Yarmuk hospital, where the victim was rushed after the drive-by shooting.