Insurgents kill at least 12 in Iraq
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-20 08:51

Guerrilla attacks killed at least 12 people in Iraq on Tuesday as a resurgence in violence piled pressure on politicians struggling to form a government more than 11 weeks after elections.

In Baghdad, a suicide car bomber killed four National Guards in the Athamiya district, police and hospital officials said. Thirty-eight people were wounded in the blast -- the latest in a string of car bombings in the capital in the past week.

Another suicide car bomber detonated next to a U.S. army convoy traveling close to the capital's international airport and locals said there were many casualties. A U.S. military spokesman said he had no immediate information.

Women grieve during the funeral of Iraqi Army Major-General Adnan Midhish Kharagoli, an adviser to the Defense Minister, after he was killed along with his nephew when 10 gunmen burst into his home in Baghdad April 19, 2005. Guerrilla attacks on Iraqi forces in Baghdad and in a town west of the capital killed at least 12 people on Tuesday, police and hospital officials said. [Reuters]

West of the capital, insurgents opened fire on members of Iraq's National Guard in the restive town of Khaldiya, killing five people and wounding four, police said.

Near Haditha, another violent city on the river Euphrates northwest of the capital, residents said U.S. warplanes bombed a suspected insurgent hideout. Local doctor Waleed al-Hadithi said two people were killed and three wounded.

Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said a member of its "martyrs' brigade" carried out the car bombing on the National Guards in Baghdad, according to a statement posted on the Internet.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility for many of the deadliest bombings in the country, including almost daily claims over the past 10 days, but it is impossible to verify what role the organization actually plays.

Suicide bombings and shootings have killed hundreds of members of the Iraqi security forces and police in recent months, raising concerns that the people who are supposed to protect Iraqis can't even protect themselves.

Gunmen also killed Baghdad University professor Fouad al- Bayati on Tuesday, riddling his car with bullets as he drove to work, police said.

While insurgents frequently kill members of Iraq's security forces because they see them as cooperating with U.S. troops, there are no clear reasons why dozens of university professors have been gunned down or kidnapped over the past two years.

BLOODSHED IS BACK

Iraq's new leaders have been confronted with renewed violence over the past week, after signs of a decline in attacks immediately after the Jan. 30 ballot.

In a sign of the growing cynicism of Iraqis toward their elected leaders, people accused politicians of fabricating a hostage crisis in a town south of Baghdad for political ends.

Shi'ite politicians said Sunni insurgents were holding up to 150 Shi'ites hostage and were threatening to kill them unless Shi'ites left the area. But raids in the town by Iraqi forces failed to produce kidnappers or hostages.

Suicide bombings have returned to the high levels seen over the past two years at a volatile time, as leaders try to form a government that balances sectarian interests.

Majority Shi'ites, who were long oppressed under Saddam Hussein, now have most political power after winning the polls, while once-dominant Sunnis are increasingly marginalised. Because many of their voters boycotted the election, Sunni politicians hold only 17 of the 275 seats in parliament.

Iraqi officials fear the longer it takes to form a government, the more encouragement insurgents will take from the indecision, allowing them to exploit the political vacuum.

The U.S. military said a 51-year-old male detainee held at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq died of what appeared to be natural causes on Tuesday. The military said it was investigating the death as part of a "normal course of action."

Such subjects are highly sensitive in Iraq after the prisoner abuse scandal at U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison.

As politicians debated renewed violence, an Iraqi deputy accused a U.S. soldier of grabbing him by the throat and shoving him to the ground after he parked his car in Baghdad's Green Zone.

Fattah al-Sheikh, an independent politician, said he had parked his car ahead of a session of parliament when U.S. troops approached him and told him he didn't have the right permit.

"I don't speak English and so I said to the Iraqi translator with them, 'Tell them that I am a member of parliament', and he replied, 'To hell with you, we are Americans,"' Sheikh told parliament, fighting back tears as he recounted the story.

The U.S. military said it was investigating the incident.

The speaker of parliament said he would ask the new prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, to demand a full apology from the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, in what threatened to become an embarrassing political spat.

The U.S. embassy said it also was investigating the affair.

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