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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Gunmen kill top Iraqi official |
| 2004-07-26 |
| Insurgents in Iraq have shot dead a top Interior Ministry official, one of eight people killed in a series of car bombs and assassinations. The surge of attacks on Monday was seen as mounting a fresh security challenge to the interim government ahead of a major political gathering expected this week. The U.S. military said a suicide car bomb exploded outside an American base near the northern city of Mosul, killing an Iraqi woman, her child and an Iraqi guard. Three U.S. soldiers and two Iraqi security staff were wounded. The military said the car was packed with mortar shells, but these did not detonate, lessening the impact. In Baghdad, gunmen shot Mussab al-Awadi, a senior official in charge of tribal affairs, as he left his house, an Interior Ministry source said. Two bodyguards were also killed. Gunmen also opened fire on five women who work as cleaners for U.S. firm Bechtel in the southern city of Basra, killing two and wounding two others, one survivor said. The women were waiting for a bus to take them to work when they were attacked. "I pretended to be dead so they didn’t shoot me. I was covered in the blood of my friends," said an emotional Montaha Khalil, who was unhurt. Insurgents have stepped up suicide car bombings, assassinations and kidnappings since a brief lull when the interim government took over from U.S.-led occupiers on June 28. Police said no one was hurt in a separate car bombing in Baghdad, which coincided with several mortar attacks that wounded one person. A bomb also exploded under a car in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, wounding several people, police said. Despite the violence, Iraq has said it will push ahead later this week with a national conference aiming to give Iraqis a real say in how their country is run. The United Nations has pushed for a delay, saying more time is needed to prepare for an event that will bring together 1,000 Iraqis from across the country to select a 100-member National Council to oversee the interim government until elections next year. It is due to kick off about July 28 and will last two or possibly three days, officials have said. Guerrillas have repeatedly targeted Iraqis they accuse of collaborating with U.S. forces or firms operating in the country. Insurgents bent on undermining the interim government have also stepped up their campaign of hostage- taking to increase pressure on foreign troops and companies to leave. A group holding seven foreign truck drivers said it had extended the deadline for talks to spare them and repeated a demand that their Kuwaiti employer pull out of Iraq. The hostages -- three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian -- were seized last week by a little-known group calling itself the "Black Banners" brigade of the Islamic Secret Army. In a videotape released on Monday, a masked group member flanked by two armed and masked men read a statement behind the kneeling hostages, who were dressed in white smocks. It was not clear what they now considered to be the deadline, which has already been extended once. Their firm, the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, said on Sunday it had received assurances the captives would be freed. Arabic television channel Al Jazeera showed identity cards and video footage on Monday of what appeared to be two Pakistanis seized in Iraq at the weekend by a group which threatened to kill them and an Iraqi taken with them. A senior Egyptian diplomat was also seized on Friday. Dozens of foreigners have been taken hostage since April. Some have been freed, but at least six have been killed by their captors, four of them by beheading. In fresh pressure on U.S. allies, an Internet statement purportedly from a militant group on Monday threatened to attack Italy if it did not withdraw its 2,700 troops from Iraq. The same website on Saturday carried a statement signed by another group claiming to be a branch of al Qaeda in Europe warning Italy and Australia of "columns of rigged cars" if they did not pull troops out of Iraq. Australia, with 850 troops in and around Iraq, said it would ignore the threats. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |