Insurgent attacks kill at least 23 Iraqis
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 11:40 a.m. ET Jan. 17, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents killed at least 23 Iraqis on Monday in a rash of attacks aimed at demoralizing the country's fledgling security forces and disrupting national elections scheduled for Jan. 30.
Some of the latest violence, including a series of weekend attacks along a highway southeast of Baghdad, occurred in provinces which U.S. and Iraqi authorities have deemed safe enough to hold the elections and appear to be attempts to scare the country?s majority Shiites away from the polls.
Underscoring these security concerns, Shiite politician Salama Khafaji, who survived an ambush in central Baghdad on Sunday by gunmen wearing police uniforms, said she?s canceled campaigning in the south after her staff discovered terrorist checkpoints on major routes.
?Terrorists wearing police uniforms?
?What we fear now most is terrorists wearing police uniforms,? Khafaji told The Associated Press Monday. ?The uniforms and body armor used by the police are available on the market for anyone to buy,? she said.
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She said the security situation was so bad that she had shelved plans to tour mainly Shiite cities in central and southern Iraq starting Monday. ?We sent people out today to check roads in the area but they have reported back that terrorists have set up some road checkpoints.?
Her complaint was underscored by attacks Monday that occurred in what are considered relatively secure areas.
Eight Iraqi National Guard soldiers were killed at a checkpoint outside a provincial broadcasting center in Buhriz, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Four other Iraqi soldiers were injured in the attack, said an official at the nearby Baqouba hospital, Ali Ahmed.
Suicide attack on police station
A suicide bombing occurred at a police station in Beiji, about 155 miles north of Baghdad on the main supply route north. Ten people were killed there and 25 were injured, according to a hospital official, but it was unclear if they were police or civilians.
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Clashes also erupted in the southern town of Musayib, where a guard was killed when guerrillas opened fire on a polling station, and Basra, where police said mortars were fired at three schools in the city that will be used as voting centers. They said nobody was wounded.
In the western city of Ramadi, meanwhile, authorities found four bodies ? three civilians and one Iraqi soldier. They bore handwritten signs declaring them collaborators, a hospital official said.
Among the victims were two Shiites who were waylaid and beheaded after being seen exiting a U.S. base in the center of the city.
"These are the rotten remains of two rejectionists (Shiites) who came to the city of Ramadi to support the occupying enemy," said a statement left with the bodies. "The fate of every agent will be slaughter."
Meanwhile, the U.S. military reported that a car bomb exploded Monday in Ramadi after Marines showed up to investigate reports of a suspicious vehicle. There were conflicting details about whether there were any American casualties.
Car bombing in Ramadi
Local hospital officials said that three Iraqi civilians were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a U.S. patrol and American troops opened fire in Ramadi, but it was not immediately clear whether they were referring to the same incident.
In the Shiite holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, police dismantled explosives placed in a car, said police spokesman Rahman Mshawi. The car was parked about 3 miles from two of Shiite Islam?s holiest shrines in the city.
Several of the bloodiest attacks in recent days have taken place in provinces that U.S. and Iraqi officials have classified as secure enough to hold elections.
Late Sunday, a police captain, Shakir Aboud, was killed and another policeman was injured when their car was hit by a roadside bomb in Numaniyah, 85 miles southeast of Baghdad, according to a morgue official in Kut?s hospital.
The area around Kut has seen a recent flare-up in violence. In a separate attack, two Iraqi government auditors were shot to death late Sunday after armed gunmen stopped their car in Suwaira, near Kut.
The two Iraqis, who worked in the provincial auditing department in Kut, were shot while riding in their car in Suwaira, about 25 miles southeast of Baghdad, according to an official at a Kut hospital.
Insurgents target thoroughfare
The town of Suwaira and the city of Kut lie along a main road southeast of Baghdad that, until recently, had served as a safer alternative route for Iraqis traveling from Baghdad to mostly Shiite southern Iraq.
The main road south had earlier been hit with violent attacks and kidnappings in an area dubbed the ?triangle of death.? Gangs of Sunni Muslim extremists had been targeting foreigners, government officials, security personnel and Shiite Muslims on the main highway.
But in recent days, the area around Kut and Suwaria have seen a flare-up in insurgent violence, apparently committed by insurgents seeking to block traffic south along the alternative route.
On Sunday, a total of 17 people were killed in the Suwaria and Kut area, including three Iraqi policemen and three Iraqi National Guard soldiers killed in separate attacks. As mourners gathered for the policemen?s funeral, a suicide bomber killed another seven people ? all civilians ? and himself.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have classified Kut as among the areas that are secure enough to hold elections.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have insisted that the elections go ahead as scheduled. Interim President Ghazi al-Yawer said that if the elections were postponed for six months, there was no guarantee the violence would wane. The insurgents ?might lay down for two or three months, then carry out attacks again,? he said.
Iraqis living abroad began registering to vote Monday in their homeland?s first independent election in nearly 50 years. Iraqis can vote abroad in 14 countries, including the United States, and there is a seven-day registration period that ends Jan. 23. Voting will begin Jan. 28 and continue until the Jan. 30 election in Iraq.
Officials estimate 1.2 million Iraqis are eligible to vote overseas.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
MSNBC News Services
Updated: 11:40 a.m. ET Jan. 17, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents killed at least 23 Iraqis on Monday in a rash of attacks aimed at demoralizing the country's fledgling security forces and disrupting national elections scheduled for Jan. 30.
Some of the latest violence, including a series of weekend attacks along a highway southeast of Baghdad, occurred in provinces which U.S. and Iraqi authorities have deemed safe enough to hold the elections and appear to be attempts to scare the country?s majority Shiites away from the polls.
Underscoring these security concerns, Shiite politician Salama Khafaji, who survived an ambush in central Baghdad on Sunday by gunmen wearing police uniforms, said she?s canceled campaigning in the south after her staff discovered terrorist checkpoints on major routes.
?Terrorists wearing police uniforms?
?What we fear now most is terrorists wearing police uniforms,? Khafaji told The Associated Press Monday. ?The uniforms and body armor used by the police are available on the market for anyone to buy,? she said.
Click for related stories
* NBC: Dark days for Saddam loyalist
* Female Shiite candidate survives attack
* Iraqis in U.S. eager to vote in historic election
She said the security situation was so bad that she had shelved plans to tour mainly Shiite cities in central and southern Iraq starting Monday. ?We sent people out today to check roads in the area but they have reported back that terrorists have set up some road checkpoints.?
Her complaint was underscored by attacks Monday that occurred in what are considered relatively secure areas.
Eight Iraqi National Guard soldiers were killed at a checkpoint outside a provincial broadcasting center in Buhriz, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. Four other Iraqi soldiers were injured in the attack, said an official at the nearby Baqouba hospital, Ali Ahmed.
Suicide attack on police station
A suicide bombing occurred at a police station in Beiji, about 155 miles north of Baghdad on the main supply route north. Ten people were killed there and 25 were injured, according to a hospital official, but it was unclear if they were police or civilians.
FREE VIDEO
Launch
? Protecting voters in Iraq
Jan. 16: As Iraq prepares for its elections, the focus is on how to protect voters as they go to the polls. NBC's Michelle Caruso Cabrera reports.
Nightly News
Clashes also erupted in the southern town of Musayib, where a guard was killed when guerrillas opened fire on a polling station, and Basra, where police said mortars were fired at three schools in the city that will be used as voting centers. They said nobody was wounded.
In the western city of Ramadi, meanwhile, authorities found four bodies ? three civilians and one Iraqi soldier. They bore handwritten signs declaring them collaborators, a hospital official said.
Among the victims were two Shiites who were waylaid and beheaded after being seen exiting a U.S. base in the center of the city.
"These are the rotten remains of two rejectionists (Shiites) who came to the city of Ramadi to support the occupying enemy," said a statement left with the bodies. "The fate of every agent will be slaughter."
Meanwhile, the U.S. military reported that a car bomb exploded Monday in Ramadi after Marines showed up to investigate reports of a suspicious vehicle. There were conflicting details about whether there were any American casualties.
Car bombing in Ramadi
Local hospital officials said that three Iraqi civilians were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a U.S. patrol and American troops opened fire in Ramadi, but it was not immediately clear whether they were referring to the same incident.
In the Shiite holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, police dismantled explosives placed in a car, said police spokesman Rahman Mshawi. The car was parked about 3 miles from two of Shiite Islam?s holiest shrines in the city.
Several of the bloodiest attacks in recent days have taken place in provinces that U.S. and Iraqi officials have classified as secure enough to hold elections.
Late Sunday, a police captain, Shakir Aboud, was killed and another policeman was injured when their car was hit by a roadside bomb in Numaniyah, 85 miles southeast of Baghdad, according to a morgue official in Kut?s hospital.
The area around Kut has seen a recent flare-up in violence. In a separate attack, two Iraqi government auditors were shot to death late Sunday after armed gunmen stopped their car in Suwaira, near Kut.
The two Iraqis, who worked in the provincial auditing department in Kut, were shot while riding in their car in Suwaira, about 25 miles southeast of Baghdad, according to an official at a Kut hospital.
Insurgents target thoroughfare
The town of Suwaira and the city of Kut lie along a main road southeast of Baghdad that, until recently, had served as a safer alternative route for Iraqis traveling from Baghdad to mostly Shiite southern Iraq.
The main road south had earlier been hit with violent attacks and kidnappings in an area dubbed the ?triangle of death.? Gangs of Sunni Muslim extremists had been targeting foreigners, government officials, security personnel and Shiite Muslims on the main highway.
But in recent days, the area around Kut and Suwaria have seen a flare-up in insurgent violence, apparently committed by insurgents seeking to block traffic south along the alternative route.
On Sunday, a total of 17 people were killed in the Suwaria and Kut area, including three Iraqi policemen and three Iraqi National Guard soldiers killed in separate attacks. As mourners gathered for the policemen?s funeral, a suicide bomber killed another seven people ? all civilians ? and himself.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have classified Kut as among the areas that are secure enough to hold elections.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have insisted that the elections go ahead as scheduled. Interim President Ghazi al-Yawer said that if the elections were postponed for six months, there was no guarantee the violence would wane. The insurgents ?might lay down for two or three months, then carry out attacks again,? he said.
Iraqis living abroad began registering to vote Monday in their homeland?s first independent election in nearly 50 years. Iraqis can vote abroad in 14 countries, including the United States, and there is a seven-day registration period that ends Jan. 23. Voting will begin Jan. 28 and continue until the Jan. 30 election in Iraq.
Officials estimate 1.2 million Iraqis are eligible to vote overseas.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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