(COMTEX) B: Car Bomb Kills Five Foreigners in Iraq ( AP Online )
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jun 14, 2004 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- A car bomb tore through a convoy Monday in central Baghdad, killing at least 12 people, including an American and four other foreigners working to rebuild Iraq's power plants. A crowd gathered, shouting "Down with the USA!" and dancing around a charred body.
Passions boiled over as the crowd of youths taunted American troops and Western journalists who rushed to the scene near Tahrir Square. American troops beat one man with a stick, but after failing to restrain the crowd, the troops and police withdrew.
The blast, which destroyed eight vehicles and turned nearby shops and a two-story house to rubble, is the second bombing in as many days to kill a dozen people and comes nearly two weeks before the formal end of the U.S.-led occupation,
Some of the victims were in shops devastated by the blast. One elderly Iraqi man, still wearing bloodsoaked night clothes, was carried from the destruction.
Frantic Iraqis scooped up the wounded and loaded them into private cars to be taken to hospitals.
The U.S. military said the dead included two Britons, one Frenchman, one American and a foreigner of undetermined nationality. More than 60 people, including 10 foreign contractors, were injured, the military said.
The bomb went off as three SUVs carrying the contractors were passing through the square. Five other vehicles were also destroyed. Scattered around one of the damaged SUVs were manuals that appeared to be for energy turbines, including one titled, "GE Energy Products, Europe."
The attack unleashed fresh anger at the United States, with crowds chanting "Down with the USA!" and burning an American flag.
"We deplore this terrorist act and vow to bring these criminals to justice as soon as possible," Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said.
He said the foreign victims were helping to rebuild power plants, but did not identify them further.
Capt. Issam Ali, security officer at the Neurological Hospital, said three dead and 14 injured had been brought there, many with serious burns and lost limbs. Al-Kindi Hospital reported receiving 29 injured.
A second car bomb went off Monday near the town of Salman Pak southeast of Baghdad. Police said a gray Opel drove between police vehicles and exploded, killing four people and injuring four others.
There have been 17 car bombings and a near-daily string of other attacks in Iraq this month. On Sunday, 12 people were killed by a car bomb near a U.S. garrison in Baghdad, and gunmen assassinated another member of the new Iraqi government, an Education Ministry official.
The bloodshed has stunned Iraq's new government, which had hoped to gain public support as the legitimate representatives of the Iraqi nation.
U.S. authorities had feared an escalation of violence before the June 30 handover of sovereignty, but they hoped the recent establishment of a sovereign Iraqi government would drain support for the insurgency, allowing security to improve so that balloting for an elected administration can be held by the end of January.
Two members of the interim government have been assassinated since its establishment on June 1. Kamal al-Jarah, 63, an Education Ministry official in charge of contacts with foreign governments and the United Nations, was fatally shot outside his home Sunday; and Deputy Foreign Minister Bassam Salih Kubba was gunned down while driving to work Saturday.
Two other top Iraqi officials - both with the police force - narrowly escaped death over the weekend.
Allawi accused Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi of trying to disrupt the transfer of sovereignty.
"Al-Zarqawi and his followers are earnestly working to prevent the success of this measure," he said.
"I want our people to be patient this month against those forces which are trying to assault them, and I promise the people that we are going to get rid of them and victory will be ours to build the a free and decent Iraq life."
Rather than going after top government figures who are well protected, the insurgents appear to be targeting middle and upper level officials who lack adequate security.
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said U.S. forces would do "everything we can to try to defeat these murderers." However, Powell told "Fox News Sunday" that "it's hard to protect an entire government."
Also Monday, U.S. Marines made a rare trip into Fallujah - only their second visit to the restive Sunni Muslim stronghold since they relinquished control to a local security force.
As Iraqi forces lined the streets, about 10 Marine vehicles rolled into the city for meetings at the mayor's office.
Marines besieged Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad, for three weeks in April after four American civilian contractors were killed in an ambush and their bodies mutilated. Ten Marines and hundreds of Iraqis, many of them civilians, died in the fighting, which unleashed widespread criticism among Iraqis, foreign governments and even America's coalition allies.
The siege was lifted when Marines announced a deal to create the Fallujah Brigade, commanded by officers from Saddam Hussein's army, to patrol the city and restore calm.
Elsewhere, the U.S. military released hundreds of prisoners Monday from Abu Ghraib prison, the focus of the scandal over U.S. abuse of Iraqi detainees.
The release - the fifth major one since the scandal broke - came a day after the U.S. military pledged that as many as 1,400 detainees will either be released or transferred to Iraqi authorities by June 30. The Americans will continue to hold between 4,000 and 5,000 prisoners deemed a threat to the coalition.
By ROBERT H. REID
Associated Press Writer
Copyright 2004 Associated Press, All rights reserved
-0-
*** end of story ***
AI
