Insurgents killed eight people in Iraq Monday including a senior Interior Ministry official gunned down near his home, and two Jordanian drivers were the latest foreigners to be seized in a spiraling hostage crisis. The surge in attacks, including two car bombings, marked 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 top 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.
| Rat bastards. They really think the average folks in Iraq will love them for this? |
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. |