Violence in Iraq 'is dropping'

2004-11-30 10:21

Baghdad - Insurgent bomb attacks killed four Iraqi national guardsmen, four civilians and two United States soldiers on Monday, even as Prime Minister Iyad Allawi claimed violence was receding in the aftermath of the Fallujah assault.

And while security concerns prompted calls from leading political parties to postpone landmark elections scheduled for January, the country's first free polls in decades appeared to remain on target with US Secretary of State Colin Powell saying there was "no reason" for a delay.

"There are thousands of Iraqis who are working on registration and getting ready for the elections," Powell told reporters in Washington.

"We're encouraging all parties to participate in the political process, especially in the Sunni heartland."

More unrest

However, the Sunni province of Al-Anbar was the scene of more unrest on Monday, when four Iraqi national guardsmen were killed in a car bomb attack in the town of Baghdadi.

In another attack, four Iraqi civilians were killed and two wounded in a roadside bomb blast near the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, police said.

Two US soldiers were also killed in a roadside bomb attack against their convoy in the Baghdad area on Monday, capping one of the deadliest months for the US military since the start of the war in March 2003.

Yet Allawi said on Monday that the general level of violence had dropped since the insurgency's main bastion had been reconquered.

Despite operations across the country taking the fight to insurgency bastions, the month of November was one of the quietest this year in the capital.

On Friday, several major Iraqi parties had argued that security conditions did not allow the organisation of viable polls across the country and called for a six-month delay.

But most of the relevant authorities rejected the idea and said everything would be done to hold the elections on January 30, as scheduled.

Fallujah a big obstacle

A US military spokesperson also reported that 13 marines and two civilians were wounded on Monday when mortar shells struck a military base south of Baghdad, again without providing further details.

US-led forces moved on Fallujah in the largest military operation since the 2003 invasion, in a bid to remove what was seen by the US military and Iraq's interim government as one of the main obstacles to holding viable polls in January.

During operations in the western Iraqi province of Al-Anbar, which includes Fallujah and the rebel town of Ramadi, three US servicemen were killed on Sunday, reported an AFP journalist embedded with US troops.

He also said two others were killed on Friday in the same province. The US military could not immediately release details of the circumstances of the deaths.

- AFP