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Bombs aimed at Iraqi forces kill 24 people
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-29 18:19
Car bombs targeting Iraqi security forces killed at least 24 people on
Friday, immediately putting the new government under pressure to tackle an
insurgency that shows no sign of weakening.
Eighty-nine people, mostly police and National Guardsmen, were also wounded,
police said, a day after a cabinet was formed following three months of
post-election wrangling.
A tape purporting to come from al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, called for more suicide attacks on U.S. forces and vowed not to let
President Bush enjoy "peace of mind," according to a Web posting.
Hours after four bombs killed at least 13 people in the Aadhamiya district of
the capital, insurgents struck in the New Baghdad area, killing two people with
the increasingly common tactic of following one strike with another.
After a first car bomb hit a National Guard convoy, police gathered at the
scene were struck by a second car bomb.
In a pattern of violence that has raised concerns over sectarian tensions,
insurgents also struck in the town of Madaen, where police say tit-for-tat
kidnappings and killings between Shi'ites and Sunnis have been on the increase.
Three car bombings killed at least nine Iraqi soldiers and wounded 35 in
attacks near a checkpoint, at a hospital and at the post office in the town
south of Baghdad, police said.
In the relatively tranquil Kurdish city of Arbil, insurgents also blew up a
bomb disposal expert and a civilian as they were trying to defuse a roadside
bomb, police said.
The bloodshed illustrated the security challenge facing Iraq's first
democratically elected government in more than 50 years, formed on Thursday
after three months of political stalemate that had crippled efforts to tackle
violence.
The 275-seat parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a cabinet proposed
by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a devout Shi'ite Muslim, ending a power
vacuum that had dissipated optimism created by Jan. 30 election.
But Jaafari failed to name permanent ministers to five key portfolios,
including oil and defense, and a top Sunni Muslim official criticized the new
government as sectarian. Two deputy prime minister posts are also left vacant in
the cabinet.
Iraq's new leaders said the government reflected its ethnic and sectarian
diversity, a theme politicians frequently stressed in a country where Shi'ites
and Kurds are the new powers and Sunnis, who dominated under Saddam Hussein,
have been sidelined.
Iraqi officials accuse the Jordanian Sunni Muslim militant Zarqawi of
mounting suicide bombings designed to spark civil war.
Officials believe capturing Zarqawi, who has a $25 million U.S. bounty on his
head, would weaken the insurgency. But he remains elusive, despite frequent U.S.
and Iraqi government claims that forces have been hot on his trail.
The latest tape posted on the Web appeared to have been recorded last month.
In it the speaker identifies himself as Zarqawi and says jihad is still going
strong two years since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
"WHY ARE THEY KILLING US?"
The four car bombs in Baghdad shook the Aadhamiya district, where insurgents
are active. One struck a restaurant crowded with security force personnel eating
breakfast, police said.
Explosions gutted shops, destroyed cars and left pools of blood in the
street.
"Why are they killing innocent Iraqis? Why are they trying to set Sunnis and
Shi'ites apart?" asked onlooker Adnan Aziz Salman, inspecting the destruction of
one of the car bombs.
"They should go and kill our occupiers. We don't care who our leaders are. We
just want security."
Reuters Television footage showed Iraqi police vehicles and U.S. Humvees
gathered at one of the bombings in Baghdad. Minutes later a second car bomb
exploded nearby.
Many Iraqis are hoping that their security forces and police will improve
their skills and take charge of security so that some 150,000 U.S. troops can
leave the country.
But as the car bombs in Baghdad showed, Iraqi forces can barely protect
themselves against the guerrillas, who have killed more than 300 of their
comrades in the past six weeks.
President Bush, who phoned Jaafari to congratulate him on forming the
government, said progress was being made in Iraq despite the insurgency but
declined to set a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops.
"I don't think it's wise for me to set out a timetable. All that will do is
cause an enemy to adjust," Bush said.
A U.S. soldier was killed and four others were wounded in a bomb attack in
northern Iraq on Thursday, the U.S. military said.
The attack occurred in Hawija, about 120 miles north of Baghdad, the military
said in a statement. That raised to 1,199 the number of U.S. military personnel
killed in action since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
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