Top al-Qaida member in Iraq killed (AP) Updated: 2005-09-27 20:21
A suicide bomber attacked Iraqis applying for jobs as
policemen Tuesday, killing nine and wounding 21, and U.S. officials said a top
deputy of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was killed over the weekend, AP
reported.
 Iraqi police officers examine the remains of a
car following a car bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday Sept. 27 2005. A
car bomb expolded in Baghdad today targeting SUV's carrying security
guards working with US companies. Four people were injured and nobody
killed according to eye witnesses. [AP] |
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer visited Baghdad to review the
alliance's training mission for the Iraqi military. The unannounced visit was de
Hoop Scheffer's second trip to Iraq. He was accompanied by the alliance's
supreme commander for operations, U.S. Gen. James L. Jones.
NATO has been training a small group of senior Iraqi military officers and is
planning to expand that mission to include higher ranks of Iraq's armed forces.
The blast occurred in Baqouba, 30 miles north of Baghdad, said the officer,
who spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about his security. A
man wearing explosives under his clothes blew himself up in a building where
Iraqis were applying to join the country's Quick Reaction Police Force.
Adhid Mita'ab, an official in Baqouba General Hospital, said nine Iraqis were
killed and 21 wounded. The commander confirmed those figures. That raised to at
least 61 the number of people killed in the past three days in Iraq, less than a
month before a national referendum on Iraq's draft constitution.
Politicians and insurgents in Iraq's Arab Sunni minority have urged Iraqis to
boycott the referendum or vote "no." They believe a charter will fracture the
country and seal the domination of the Shiite majority.
On Monday, American and Iraqi officials tried to rally Sunni support for the
referendum by releasing 500 detainees from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison
outside Baghdad to mark the coming Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
But if two-thirds of voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces reject the
charter, a new government must be formed and the process of writing a
constitution starts over.
On Monday, insurgents dragged five Shiite Muslim schoolteachers and their
driver into a classroom, lined them against a wall and gunned them down.
The slayings in Iraq's notorious Triangle of Death south of Baghdad reflected
the enflamed sectarian divisions ahead of the referendum. The shooting was a
rare attack on a school amid Iraq's relentless violence, and it was particularly
stunning since the gunmen targeted teachers in a school where the children were
mainly Sunnis.
Also Monday, a suicide attack and roadside bombings killed 10 Iraqis and
three American soldiers.
In Washington, U.S. defense officials said that Abdullah Abu Azzam, a leading
deputy to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, was killed this
weekend. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity
of the information.
The U.S. military on Tuesday said U.S. and Iraqi forces, acting on a tip,
raided a high-rise apartment building in Baghdad where Abu Azzam was located
early Sunday.
"They went in to capture him, he did not surrender and he was killed in the
raid," Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman, told The Associated
Press.
Earlier this month, al-Zarqawi declared "all-out war" on Shiites and vowed to
kill anyone participating in the referendum.
In north Iraq, a top aide to al-Zarqawi surrendered to police in the city of
Mosul, Iraqi army Brig. Gen. Ali Attalah said Monday. The aide, Abdul Rahman
Hasan Shahin, was one of the most wanted figures in Mosul, Attalah said.
During his visit to Iraq, De Hoop Scheffer hoisted a NATO flag over the
alliance's training mission headquarters in Baghdad on Tuesday and said the
mission sent an important message.
"It is important of course for political reasons, NATO as an alliance of
individual nations, reaffirming their commitments to Iraq," he said.
The NATO training mission has 165 alliance personnel in Iraq and aims to turn
out 900 Iraqi officers a year. Although it is dwarfed by the U.S.-led coalition
efforts to forge new Iraqi forces, alliance commanders stress the importance of
their mission to train senior commanders.
"This is important because in this way it is possible to change the mentality
of the Iraqi personnel," said Maj. Gen. Pier Giorgio Segala, the Italian deputy
commander of the NATO mission.
Political opposition led by France and Germany has prevented the alliance
from taking a wider role in Iraq and from helping equip Iraqi forces with tanks
and other military hardware.
Sixteen of the 26 NATO nations are participating in the mission in Iraq.
Others are providing funding or are training Iraqis outside the
country.
|
 | | Massive Indonesian vaccination drive against polio resumes | | |  | | Hurricane Rita aftermath in the United States | | |  | | Poles vote in parliamentary election | | |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|