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Iraqi truce stained with blood
03/06/2004 13:39 - (SA)
Baghdad - Five civilians were killed in the central Iraqi shrine town of Kufa on Thursday as violence raged after the new transitional government made restoring security its top priority.
Fifteen civilians were also wounded in the early morning clashes between militiamen loyal to Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr and US troops, medics said.
The bloodshed was a new blow to efforts to establish a truce in the area after ferocious fighting on Wednesday which saw nine Iraqis killed and 44 wounded in clashes in Kufa and the adjacent holy city of Najaf, as well as the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.
A group of mainstream Shiite politicians and other dignitaries on Wednesday blamed US troops for the collapse of the latest ceasefire announced the previous day by provincial governor Adnan al-Zorfi.
The two sides differ widely over truce arrangements - US commanders insist their troops maintain the right to patrol but Sadr's Mehdi Army militia considers the mere presence of US armour in the Shiite holy cities as an aggression.
The fresh fighting in Kufa came after two deadly blasts rocked the capital on Wednesday, as insurgents opposed to the US-led occupation pressed their efforts to sabotage the handover of power.
Officials have warned that violence is likely to escalate as the clock ticks down to the June 30 deadline for the return of sovereignty.
Botched bombing
At least four people were killed and 34 wounded when a car bomb rocked the Sunni neighbourhoood of Adhamiyah on Wednesday, said Doctor Abdullah Saheb of Baghdad's Al-Numan hospital.
Later, in what appeared a botched car bombing in the nearby Harthiyah district, one person was killed and another wounded when a vehicle exploded, said police officer Salah Hassan.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, a rocket was fired on a US military base on Wednesday night, hitting an ammunition depot and setting off a blaze which lasted several hours.
Hands tied
The body of a translator for the US army was later found with his hands tied behind his back, police said.
In Baquba, north of the capital, a policeman and a bodyguard for the local deputy governor's daughter were killed in separate attacks, witnesses and hospital sources said.
The persistent violence underlined the difficulties facing Iraq's new transitional government whose premier Iyad Allawi has described security as his "number-one priority".
Unveiling his cabinet, Allawi stressed that he wanted the US-led occupation to end but admitted that he wanted all the help he could get from the coalition in restoring calm.
"Yesterday and today, there have been terrorist attacks and as Iraqis we want to work with the multinational force and with friends and our brothers in the region to defeat these continued threats," Allawi told his ministers.
The US-backed premier intends to reinstate several divisions of Saddam Hussein's old army in a bid to boost Iraq's capacity to deal with the spiralling security crisis.
- AFP
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