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Insurgents try to derail Iraqi elections
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-12 10:35 Insurgents pressed their
attack on U.S. troops and Iraq's security forces Saturday, killing five Iraqi
police officers and wounding 14 American soldiers in a relentless effort to
derail next month's elections. A U.S. Marine also was killed in the province
containing the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
The Marine was killed in action Saturday in the volatile western Anbar
province, the military said. The Marine, assigned to the 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force, was killed "while conducting security and stabilization
operations" in Anbar, a military statement said.
No further details were immediately available. Anbar contains the
battleground cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.
The Marine's identity was not released. As of Saturday, at least 1,287
members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in
March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The 14 Americans were wounded in separate attacks in northern Iraq. One car
bombing and ambush wounded eight soldiers, prompting an American warplane to
drop a 500-pound bomb on an insurgent position in Mosul.
"The commanders on the ground felt the attack was heavy enough to call in
close air support," military spokeswoman Capt. Angela Bowman said.
Violence continues to grip the Sunni-dominated areas in central Iraq despite
last month's U.S.-led assault on the main insurgent stronghold of Fallujah and
on an area south of Baghdad. That attack was launched to try to curb the
insurgency so parliamentary elections could be held nationwide Jan. 30.
The latest attacks appear to be part of a sweeping intimidation campaign
aimed at foiling those elections, in part by killing Iraqis who cooperate with
the United States, making them collaborators in the eyes of insurgents.
Police Col. Najeeb al-Joubouri was gunned down on his way to work on a road
outside Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad.
Two more police commanders were shot and killed in Baghdad's southwestern
Saidiyah neighborhood in an early-morning ambush. A senior Interior Ministry
official identified the victims as Brig. Gen. Razzaq Karim Mahmood and Col.
Karim Farhan.
Gunmen ambushed a police patrol in Baghdad's northern suburb of Azamiyah late
Friday, killing a captain and a constable and wounding two others, police Lt.
Mohammed al-Obeidi said.
The guerrillas regard the elections as an effort to legitimize a puppet
government that will serve U.S. interests.
Iraq's government says the vote will go ahead as scheduled, and preparations
continued Saturday, with election officials saying candidates from 70 political
parties and coalitions have filed so far. The filing deadline is Dec. 15.
In other violence, gunmen shot and killed a Shiite cleric, Salim al-Yaqoubi,
near his home in Baghdad, police said.
A second Shiite cleric, Sheik Ammar al-Joubouri, was slain Friday near
Mahmoudiya, about 25 miles south of Baghdad, while driving to the capital.
Al-Joubouri once headed a religious court of followers of anti-U.S. cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr in the southern holy city of Najaf.
In northern Iraq, a suspected suicide car bomber wounded two U.S. soldiers in
Beiji, while two more were wounded in a car bomb blast near Kirkuk, about 60
miles to the north.
Two more U.S. soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb outside Hawija, near
Kirkuk.
A military spokesman said Saturday that U.S. commanders welcomed news that
the Pentagon intended to speed up production of armored Humvees.
The issue of whether the military was providing enough protection for its
troops received new attention this week after an Iraq-bound National Guardsman
questioned Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in neighboring Kuwait on why he
and his comrades must comb through scrap piles for metal to protect their
vehicles.
"Commanders are looking for any opportunity to increase force protection for
the sake of their troops," said Maj. Neal O'Brien, spokesman for the
Tikrit-based 1st Infantry Division. "Uparmor or add-on armor will always be one
of those force protection assets they want more of."
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