IRAQ: Gunmen killed Baghdad's governor in Iraq's highest-profile assassination in eight months and a suicide bomber killed 11 people at a police checkpoint yesterday, in an escalating campaign to wreck the January 30th election.
The shooting of Mr Ali al-Haidri in a roadside ambush showed insurgents' power to strike at the heart of the governing class, raising fresh doubts as to whether security forces can protect politicians and voters as the ballot draws near.
A group led by al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, behind most of the attacks since the US-led invasion, claimed responsibility for the assassination, saying its fighters had struck down a "tyrant and American agent". The group said it was also behind the suicide bombing.
Insurgents killed three US soldiers in a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad; another soldier in a bomb blast north of the capital; and a marine in western Iraq.
The attacks brought the number of US military and Pentagon personnel killed in action since the start of the war to 1,053. Including non-combat deaths, the toll is 1,338.
In a fresh sign of political divisions over the election, Iraq's president urged the UN to look into whether the country should hold the polls as scheduled, even though other officials have vowed to stick to the timetable.
Mr Haidri's assassination took place hours after a bomber rammed a fuel truck into a roadblock near Baghdad's Green Zone, home to the Iraqi government and the US and British embassies. The truck went up in a fireball that rocked the capital.
The blast killed eight police commandos and three civilians and wounded 60 people, bringing fresh scenes of bloodshed to Baghdad's streets a day after 17 security men died in a string of ambushes across the country.
"A lion from the martyrs' brigade of the Qaeda Organisation for Holy War attacked a security headquarters in Baghdad's Qadissiya area, causing many casualties," said a statement posted on an Islamist website.
The attacks were the latest in a drive by Sunni insurgents trying to force out US-led forces, cripple the American-backed interim government and scare voters away from the polls. Iraqi leaders say guerrillas also want to provoke sectarian civil war.
Voicing sadness at Mr Haidri's assassination, US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell said: "It once again shows that there are murderers and terrorists and former regime elements in Iraq that don't want to see an election.
"They want to go back to the tyranny of the Saddam Hussein regime and that is not going to happen," he told a news conference in Thailand.
Mr Haidri was the most senior official assassinated in the city since the head of the Governing Council was killed last May.
Insurgents have repeatedly attacked Iraqi officials as well as members of the country's fledgling security forces.
The choice of targets yesterday showed again the vulnerability of Iraq's new security branches, which have gained a reputation for ineffectiveness even as they undergo crash training to take over eventually from US-led forces.
A roadside bomb blew up near a convoy of American four-wheel drive vehicles near the northern town of Baquba, killing three National Guards in an escort vehicle, police said.
Four security contractors, three Britons and an American, were killed on Monday in a bombing in Baghdad.
US and Iraqi officials ushered in the New Year by warning they expected a spike in pre-election attacks, but pledging to do everything possible to safeguard what they say will be the country's first free elections since the 1950s.
Adding his voice to a renewed push for a possible delay in this month's ballot, Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni politician, said the election would fail if a raging insurgency kept a significant number of Iraqis away from voting stations. "On a logical basis, there are signs that it will be a tough call to hold the election."
Hundreds of Sunni Muslim clerics, politicians and notables warned yesterday that holding the ballot on time would marginalise the Sunnis and risk civil strife. - (Reuters)