Gunmen Kill Top Iraqi Official
By Dean Yates
Reuters
Monday 26 July 2004
Baghdad - 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.
Conference to go ahead
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.
Threat to kill Pakistani hostages
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.
The Philippines withdrew its troops from Iraq this month to spare the life of a Filipino hostage. It
joined Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras as countries to pull out of what once
was a 34-nation U.S.-led coalition.
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Senior Iraqi Official Shot Dead
By BBC News
Monday 26 July 2004
A senior Iraqi interior ministry official has been shot dead by gunmen in the capital Baghdad.
Musab al-Awadi, the ministry's deputy chief in charge of tribal affairs, was killed along with two of
his bodyguards, a ministry spokesman said.
The men were attacked as they left Mr Awadi's house in the al-Baya area of the capital.
It is the latest in a series of attacks by militants targeting senior officials in Iraq.
In other developments in Iraq:
A suicide bombing outside an American military base in Mosul kills at least three
people, including the bomber
in Basra, two Iraqi women working as cleaners for coalition forces are shot dead
a militant group threatening to kill seven foreign hostages says it has extended a
deadline for negotiations
a separate group says it has taken two Pakistani truck drivers and an Iraqi man
hostage, and there are further reports that two Jordanians have been taken
hostage.
Sustained violence
The assassination is the 10th such killing since the new government took power at the end of June.
Earlier this month, a suicide bomber targeted the justice minister, killing five people. The minister
escaped unhurt.
In May, the leader of the defunct Iraqi Governing Council, Ezzedine Salim, was killed in a suicide
bombing near the headquarters of the US-led coalition.
The militants have declared the interim administration illegitimate.
However, the Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, has promised tough action to curb the violence.
He said plans for a new intelligence unit, unveiled two weeks ago, would "annihilate those terrorist
groups". |
