Violence in Iraq claims 18

2005-06-03 19:33

Bill Ickes

Baghdad - Eighteen Iraqis, including a Shiite cleric, died in the country's latest round of unchecked violence as security forces pressed on with an operation on Friday to root out insurgents in Baghdad, said sources.

Security forces said five people, including a child and two Iraqi soldiers, were killed in several attacks north of the capital early on Friday.

The US military said, in Samarra, insurgents took on a police rapid reaction force in a firefight that killed the child and one other person, while 10 Iraqis were killed and 12 wounded late on Thursday in an attack in Baghdad.

Major Wes Hayes said: "There was a suicide car bombing outside a home near Balad late on Thursday. Ten Iraqis were killed and 12 wounded."

Gunmen kills Shiite cleric

Police said an Iraqi translator working for the US military was also gunned down near Balad on Friday.

His son said in southern Iraq, gunmen killed Shiite cleric Ali Abdel Hussein in Basra overnight.

Mohammed Ali Abdel Hussein said: "Two men armed with pistols shot my father last night, near a mosque in a northern neighbourhood. I chased them and they shot at me too."

Police said violence in the tense northern oil hub of Kirkuk continued, with the assassination of Turkman police general Sabah Bahlul Goralton as he left Friday prayers.

His death followed that of Kurdish police general, Ahmad Saleh al-Baranzanchi, who was murdered there in an attack claimed by an al-Qaeda-linked militant group, Ansar al-Sunna.

Regime of Saddam Hussein

Inhabited by Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Turkmen, Kirkuk was heavily Arabised under the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Kurds now wanted the city to be the capital of their autonomous region, while Arabs complained of harassment since Saddam's fall.

In Baghdad, Iraqi authorities hailed Operation Lightning designed to snare insurgents in the city, which was home to six million people.

They said on Thursday that 700 had been arrested and 28 killed in five days of operations.

Despite this, three explosions from mortar attacks shook the capital around midday on Friday.

Violence 'kills 700 Iraqis'

One security source said the shells came from a predominantly Sunni area and that one had landed near the Lebanese embassy.

No casualties were reported, but the attacks showed that Baghdad remained vulnerable to the violence that killed almost 700 Iraqis throughout the country in May.

Residents reported some additional mobile checkpoints by interior ministry commandos, but there was little evidence of a massive operation, and in many areas life carried on as usual.

Up to 40 000 army troops and police personnel were to take part in the sweep, but Baghdad streets were filled more often with a motley collection of dusty foreign-built cars than with armoured Humvees or heavily armed personnel carriers.

Outside Kirkuk, two roadside bombs struck a US patrol early on Friday.

- SAPA