Iraq: A car bomb blew up near the Turkish embassy in Baghdad yesterday in an apparent suicide attack just days after Turkey agreed to send troops to bolster US-led forces occupying Iraq.
A US spokesman, Col Peter Mansoor, said a car was driven towards the entrance of the heavily fortified Turkish mission. It blew up, killing the driver and wounding several bystanders. US troops sealed off the area around the embassy with razor wire as ambulances and a fire crew rushed to the scene.
Local hospital staff said they had treated 10 wounded people, one with critical head injuries.
An angry crowd gathered nearby, chanting "With blood, with soul, we sacrifice for you, Saddam". Iraqi police scuffled with the protesters and fired in the air to disperse them.
Turkey's parliament agreed last week to send troops to join American and other foreign troops trying to stabilise Iraq after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in April.
But many members of Iraq's US-sponsored Governing Council oppose the deployment and an aide to Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said he would rethink his position on the council if it accepted the entry of Turkish troops.
Iraqi fighters have attacked US troops and other targets seen as linked to the American presence in the country.
On Sunday a suicide bomber attacked a Baghdad hotel housing US security personnel, members of the US-backed Governing Council and American contractors. In August bombers hit the Jordanian embassy and devastated the UN headquarters in the Iraqi capital.
A Turkish foreign ministry official in Ankara condemned the latest blast. "Just like the attack on the United Nations, this attack shows the security situation in Iraq is terrible," the official said. "Allies of the United States must move quickly to help stabilise the country." Highlighting the insecurity, Iraqi council official Mr Nabeel Musawi said Oil Minister Mr Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum had survived an attempt on his life at the weekend when a man fired on his motorcade in Baghdad.
Mr Musawi said beefing up personal protection was not the long-term answer to Iraq's postwar breakdown in law and order.
"We need to hand over security operations to Iraqis so they can deal with the criminal element and terrorists. Iraqis know their counterparts better than a soldier from Pennsylvania or Arizona," he said.
Mr Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a Shia member of the council, said December 15th was a viable deadline for preparing a timetable for a constitution and elections. "I think it's a very realistic one \ and we can certainly achieve this," he said.
Meanwhile, Iraqi banks will today begin using millions of fresh banknotes - a huge currency swap that will wipe Saddam Hussein's face from legal tender.
Iraqi police blocked roads and tightened security around Baghdad's main financial district housing the central bank prior to the start of the bill exchange today.
Iraqis have three months to turn in four trillion dinars worth of Saddam-era bills in central and southern Iraq and older notes popularly known as Swiss dinars across the north in exchange for six new denominations ranging from 50-dinar notes to 25,000-dinar bills.
The Iraqi dinar is worth about 2,000 to the US dollar. - (Reuters)