Baghdad car bombing claims 10

2005-10-06 18:18

Baghdad - Ten people were killed in a car bombing near the oil ministry - in one of a spate of attacks on Thursday - adding to fears of spiralling violence in the run-up to the October 15 referendum on Iraq's new constitution.

The bombings and shootings came a day after a bomb attack in Hillah, south of Baghdad, that killed 25 people as Shi'ite Muslims gathered for prayers at the end of the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.

In London, Iraq's Kurdish President Jalal Talabani was meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss Iraq ahead of the referendum, a key phase in the country's transition after the toppling of Saddam Hussein by United States-led forces in April 2003.

Terror attacks

Their talks followed British accusations that Iran was supplying explosives technology to rebels who had killed British soldiers in southern Iraq, an area usually free of much of the violence.

United States President George W Bush was preparing to address the nation to defend his strategy in Iraq, while warning that a quick exit for the country's troops could sow a deadly harvest of future terror attacks on US soil.

The latest violence came after Iraq's parliament bowed on Wednesday to United Nations and US pressure by reversing changes to the rules of the referendum that critics deemed were unfair to opponents of the divisive new constitution.

Assassination attempt

In the oil-ministry attack, 10 people were killed and another eight injured, shortly after eight civilians were wounded when a suicide bomber drove a car at three armoured vehicles in a convoy in the centre of the capital.

On Monday, oil minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulum survived an assassination attempt after his convoy was bombed and fired on in Baghdad. Two of his bodyguards were killed.

A US patrol also hit a roadside bomb in northern Baghdad on Thursday. Sergeant David Abrams said: "We did evacuate some casualties from the site."

Elsewhere in Iraq, nine people were killed in various attacks, including a retired police general and his two-year-old daughter being gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Kirkuk on Wednesday.

Bomb explodes

At least 25 Shi'ite Muslims died and 92 were wounded late on Wednesday in a prayer hall in Hillah after a bomb exploded as the faithful gathered to break their day-long fast on the first day of Ramadan.

Al-Qaeda's spokesperson in Iraq, the Jordanian-born Sunni extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, last month declared all-out war against the country's Shi'ite Muslim population.

Thousands of US soldiers continued a sweep against al-Qaeda fighters in western Iraq along the Euphrates Valley in what the military said was an attempt to cut off insurgent supply routes from neighbouring Syria.

- AFP