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Car bombs, explosion kill 16 in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside explosion and three separate car bombs — one near the prime minister's party headquarters in Baghdad — killed at least 16 people in Iraq on Monday as insurgents pressed their deadly campaign to disrupt national elections which one senior Iraqi official said could be postponed.
Three bodies were seen burning inside the destroyed vehicle. The nationalities of the victims were not immediately known. Iraqi police Lt. Khalid Mohammed said the bomb targeted a U.S. nonmilitary convoy and there were casualties at the checkpoint, which is the main Green Zone exit for trips to Baghdad International Airport west of the city. American contractors and diplomats commonly make the journey along the dangerous airport road in SUVs. Meanwhile, Iraqi defense minister Hazem Shaalan raised the possibility Monday that Iraqi elections could be postponed to try to persuade minority Sunni Muslims to participate in the vote. The first strike by an explosive-laden car near Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party headquarters killed two police officers and one civilian and injured 25 others. The secular Shiite leader was not inside the building in Baghdad's western district of Harithiya when the blast occurred, his aides said. The second car bomb attack took place in Balad, about 50 miles north of the capital, killing four Iraqi National Guard Soldiers and wounding 14, U.S. military spokesman Neal E. O'Brien said. The driver of the car bomb died in the blast. The third strike occurred in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing at least six Guardsmen and injuring four others in a roadside explosion, police said. "Anti-Iraqi forces continue to target the Iraqi National Guard" because the ING is creating conditions for "successful elections," O'Brien said. Car bombings and roadside explosions have become a standard feature of the deadly insurgency in Iraq ahead of the elections scheduled for Jan. 30. On Sunday, a car bombing also in Balad killed at least 22 national guardsmen and their bus driver. Ten other people were killed in separate attacks Sunday. U.S. officials have warned of violence ahead of the landmark vote for a national assembly, and the guerrillas have made good on those fears with tragic ease. Iraq's poorly equipped security forces usually have far less training than American troops, and attacks on them usually result in more casualties. Police said the yellow car exploded shortly before 10 a.m. Monday after trying to ram a police checkpoint outside the offices of Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party in a western Baghdad district. The driver was killed in addition to the two policemen and civilian. Eighteen other officers were among the wounded as well as seven civilians. Witnesses said machine-gun fire broke out after the explosion, which set fire to three police vehicles. An Iraqi policeman was killed and two others were wounded when a beheaded, booby-trapped corpse exploded in the town of Mosul as "Iraqi police officers secured the site and attempted to search the remains in order to identify the body," a government statement said Monday. It was not clear when the incident happened. "This is another example of how the criminals and terrorists — attempting to thwart Iraq's efforts to conduct free and fair elections — have no regard for their fellow countrymen," the government said. Meanwhile on Sunday, prominent Shiite leaders belonging to the Unified Iraqi Alliance — a mainstream Shiite coalition running in the election — called for unity with Sunni Arabs wanting to delay the vote but insisted it be held despite the violence. Shiites, who make up about 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, are eager for the vote to go ahead so they can take power long denied them when the Sunni Arab minority had power under Saddam Hussein. But they hope the Sunnis, who make up about 20 percent of the people, will participate lest the vote be considered illegitimate.
Iraq's insurgents, believed to be predominantly Sunni, repeatedly have targeted Shiites in apparent attempts to widen sectarian rifts. Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan told reporters during a visit to Cairo that he had asked Egypt to try to persuade Sunni Muslims to participate in the vote. "We could postpone the date to let all Iraqis go to the polls in one day" if that would accommodate Sunnis, Shaalan said. Other Iraqi and U.S. officials have insisted the vote will be held as planned. Shaalan is known for taking an independent line, at one point prompting Allawi to publicly distance his interim government from Shaalan's statements. Fareed Ayar, a spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission in Iraq, refused to comment on Shaalan's statements, saying the body was functioning according to the electoral schedule. "The commission is still working on holding the elections as scheduled and according to the timetable we have," Ayar said. A low turnout because of violence or Sunni concerns about being disenfranchised could undermine the legitimacy of the first free elections since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958. |
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