Violence plagues Iraq

2005-01-08 13:33

Baghdad - Militants abducted three senior Iraqi officials, beheaded an Iraqi who worked for the US military and killed at least four other people on Saturday, a day after a US general warned that the insurgents may be planning "spectacular" attacks to scare voters in the three weeks before Iraq's landmark elections.

Air Force Brigadier General Erv Lessel, who is deputy chief of staff for strategic communications in Iraq, said on Friday that American leaders expected a rise in attacks.

"I think a worst case is where they have a series of horrific attacks that cause mass casualties in some spectacular fashion in the days leading up to the elections," Lessel said.

In Washington, President George W Bush expressed optimism about the January 30 elections, saying they will be "an incredibly hopeful experience," despite rising violence and doubts that the vote will bring stability and democracy.

This week has seen a string of assassinations, suicide car bombings and other assaults that killed nearly 100 people, mostly Iraqi security troops, who are seen by the militants as collaborators with the American occupiers. The insurgency is apparently intended to scare voters.

Authorities in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit said on Saturday that gunmen abducted a deputy governor of a central Iraqi province and two other senior Iraqi officials as they travelled to a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most prominent Shiite leader, in the holy city of Najaf to discuss national elections.

The delegation was stopped and the members kidnapped on Friday about 60km south of Baghdad. The area is in the "triangle of death," a string of Sunni-controlled towns south of Baghdad which have been the scene of frequent attacks and abductions of Iraqi officials and Shiite Muslims.

In Baqouba, insurgents beheaded a translator who was working with the US army after breaking into his house. An Iraqi policeman was killed by masked gunmen as he was leaving his house the southern Dora neighbourhood of Baghdad.

A booby-trapped car blew up on Saturday at a gas station in Mahaweel, about 60km south of Baghdad. One man was killed and several others were injured, police said.

In Baghdad's western suburb of Khadraa, gunmen shot dead Abboud Khalaf al-Lahibi, deputy secretary-general of the National Front for Iraqi tribes, his aide Ibrahim al-Farhan said. A bodyguard was killed and three others wounded in the attack, he said.

On Friday, a US soldier was killed in a non-hostile vehicle accident in the western province of Anbar, the US military said.

Lessel said he expects the insurgents to escalate attacks before the election, and that the incidents would probably decline after the vote.

"What the terrorists fear most is a simple piece of paper called a ballot," he said. "They fear the election. I think successful elections will have a significant impact on the insurgents."

- AP