Iraqi attacks claim 13
2005-01-11 12:04
Baghdad - A roadside bomb that missed a passing United States military convoy killed seven Iraqis and wounded one south of Baghdad on Tuesday, police and hospital sources said, while a suicide car bomb at police headquarters in Tikrit killed six.
The victims in the roadside bomb explosion were travelling in a minibus in Yussifiyah, 15km south of Baghdad, when the blast occurred, said the director of the town's hospital, Dawoud al-Taie.
Little other information was known about the Tikrit blast. US military spokesperson Major Neal O'Brien said six were killed, while police sources said 12 were wounded.
"As the Iraqi police continue to get stronger, and continue to pose a threat to the insurgents and terrorists, they will be targetted," O'Brien said.
Trying to disrupt elections
The killings were the latest in a series of attacks by insurgents who are trying to disrupt a landmark January 30 national election. The last two days have seen a new surge of attacks, with four roadside bombings and suicide attacks on Iraqi and American forces on Monday.
In the central city of Samarra, a car bomb exploded near al-Razzaq Mosque when a US military convoy was passing in the central Moalmeen neighbourhood, police Major Qahtan Mohammed said. It wasn't clear if there were any casualties since US and Iraqi troops cordoned the area preventing people from getting close.
At dawn on Tuesday, an explosion tore through a gas pipeline between Kirkuk and a refinery in Beiji. An official with the Northern Oil Company said the pipeline was destroyed and would take five days to repair.
The official said an explosion hit a few pipelines that run next to each other in the Zegheitoun area, 55km southwest of Kirkuk. The extent of the damage wasn't immediately known.
Insurgents have repeatedly targeted Iraq's oil infrastructure, denying the country much-needed reconstruction money. Oil exports to Turkey, the outlet for Iraq's northern fields, were halted because of a blast mid-November. - AP
- SAPA