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Fifteen Iraqi guardsmen feared kidnapped
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-15 08:46
Insurgents rocketed an Iraqi military bus west of the capital Friday and 15
Iraqi soldiers were missing and feared kidnapped, as insurgent violence and
intimidation escalated ahead of this month's crucial national election.
A senior American officer acknowledged that violence and threats by
insurgents might keep some people in Baghdad away from the Jan. 30 polls.
The bus was driving to a U.S. military post when it was struck by
rocket-propelled grenades near Baghdadi, about 90 miles west of the capital,
said an Iraqi National Guard officer who identified himself only as Lt. Col.
Hesham.
Iraqis gather
outside the Shiite mosque in Khan Bani Saad, near Baqouba, some 35
kilometers (20 miles) northeast of Baghdad, late Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005.
A car bomb detonated after prayers Thursday killing four and injuring 13.
[AP] | He said the bus burst into flames but no bodies were found, raising fears the
troops had been taken prisoner.
Elsewhere, the U.S. military announced Friday that two Marines and a 1st
Infantry Division soldier were killed in separate clashes the previous day.
Iraqi police ambushed a group of gunmen in a Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad
known as a stronghold of support for Saddam Hussein, killing seven, police Capt.
Ahmed Ismael said. The fight occurred near the Abu Hanifa mosque, whose clerics
are outspoken opponents of the election.
The bus attack was the latest in a growing number of assaults on Iraqi
security forces as the country prepares for balloting. Iraqis will choose a
275-member legislature in the first election since the collapse of Saddam's
regime in April 2003.
The Bush administration hopes the election will be a major step in the
building of a democracy and set the stage for the withdrawal of American and
international military forces.
Although Iraq's long-suppressed Shiite Muslim majority is expected to vote in
huge numbers, Sunni Arab clerics are urging a boycott and Sunni insurgents
threaten attacks to disrupt voting, fearing the loss of power to Shiites.
Despite the threats, U.S. and other foreign troops plan to stay in the
background during the balloting, turning over primary security responsibility to
Iraqi forces, which have been criticized for poor performance and training.
Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, deputy commander of the 1st Cavalry Division,
said violence could keep some Baghdad residents away from the polls.
He warned of a further surge in bombings and other violence as the election
draws near and said there was no guarantee Iraqi and American forces could stop
a spectacular attack causing mass casualties.
"If I told you I could guarantee that, then I'd be a fool," Hammond told
reporters Friday.
In Mauritius, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said conditions for elections
in Iraq were "far from ideal." He said participation by Sunni Arabs was critical
to ensure the new government is truly representative and urged Iraq's interim
government to "intensity its effort" to draw in Sunnis.
Attackers in Iraq's north killed three officials of a party representing
Iraqi Kurds, who also are working aggressively for a high turnout in the
election, which is expected to pry power from Iraq's long-dominant Sunni
minority.
Gunmen also killed an Iraqi election official in western Baghdad late
Thursday, police said, marking at least the seventh such killing ahead of the
vote. Attackers in a passing car shot Abdul Karim Jassem Al-Ubeidi as he headed
home, police said.
Sunni militants claimed on Friday that they were behind Wednesday's
assassination of a Shiite community leader who had promoted the election on
behalf of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Ansar
al-Islam said it killed Sheik Mahmoud Finjan because he was a "big supporter of
the elections."
"We ... call upon all brother citizens not to participate in the elections
because we are going to attack voting centers," Ansar al-Islam said in a
statement posted on a Web site used by insurgents.
In Baghdad late Friday, insurgents fired two rockets near the Sadeer Hotel,
which is used by Western contractors, and a third near the Ministry of
Education, but caused no casualties. The blasts broke a lull of about two weeks
in insurgent shelling of the city center.
Attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Iraqi police patrol in the
Amiriyah district on the western edge of Baghdad. Three explosions also were
heard near the main road from central Baghdad to the city's international
airport, police said.
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