25 Killed in Suicide Attacks Aimed at Derailing Elections

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A suicide attacker blew up an explosives-laden car outside a police academy south of Baghdad yesterday, killing 20 people, and another car bomb left five Iraqi policemen dead. Despite the surge of violence aimed at derailing this month’s elections, Iraq’s interim leader again insisted the ballot would go ahead as planned.“We will not allow the terrorists to stop the political process in Iraq,” Prime Minister Allawi said as the death toll from insurgent attacks topped 90 over four days this week. “The elections process is the basis for the deepening of the national unity in Iraq.”While Mr. Allawi and American military commanders insisted parliamentary elections must be held as scheduled on January 30, President al-Yawer, who holds only ceremonial powers, left open the possibility that the vote could be postponed.“I think that we should continue working on how to hold the elections on schedule, but we should not lack the courage if we see that this is impossible,” said Mr. al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim tribal leader.If the election takes place, it is expected to shift power to the Shiite Muslim community, an estimated 60% of the population that has been dominated by the Sunni Arab minority since modern Iraq was created after World War I.The insurgency is believed to be led by Sunnis and Saddam Hussein’s supporters. American officials believe the violence is aimed at blocking the elections and causing worse chaos in hopes of driving out the American-led military coalition. They say postponing the vote would be tantamount to conceding victory to the insurgents.The car bomb outside a gate of the police academy in Hillah, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, was the latest in a series of attacks on Iraqi security forces. More than 1,300 policemen were killed in the final four months of 2004, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.The police captain, Hady Hatef, in Hillah said the blast occurred during a graduation ceremony at the academy and killed at least 20 people, including civilians. A Polish lieutenant colonel, Artur Domanski, a spokesman for the multinational force in Hillah, said at least 10 policemen were among the dead and 41 people were wounded.In the restive city of Baqouba, 30 miles northeast of Baghdad, a suicide attacker rammed his car into a joint police and Iraqi National Guard checkpoint, killing five policemen and wounding eight other Iraqis, an American spokesman, Major Neal O’Brien, said. The driver was also killed.In a separate attack, gunmen killed police Colonel Khalifa Hassan and his driver as they headed to work in Baqouba, said Dr. Ahmed Fouad at Baqouba General Hospital.Between 20,000 and 30,000 insurgents are operating throughout Iraq and are directed by former officials of Saddam’s regime based in Syria, Iraq’s intelligence chief said in an interview published yesterday by a London based Arab-language newspaper.“We officially call them terrorists,” Major General Mohammed Abdullah al-Shahwani told Asharq Al-Awsat. “They are between 20,000 and 30,000 armed men operating all over Iraq, mainly in the Sunni areas where they receive moral support from about 200,000 people.”Mr. al-Shahwani predicted attacks would fade out within a year.Mr. Allawi said yesterday that “there is no doubt we will crush these terrorists and we will guarantee security and stability for our people in the near future.”He said Iraqi security forces are being equipped with new weapons and armored vehicles.“Hostile forces are still trying to cause harm and damage, but the Iraqi forces are becoming better, and they have captured and killed some terrorists,” Mr. Allawi told reporters.He said security forces recently arrested two aides of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is believed to be one of the insurgency’s leaders.“They were detained in Mosul along with three or four others and they have started confessing now to Iraqi security about the networks they run in order to harm our people,” Mr. Allawi said.In other violence, an explosives filled car following a convoy of American and Iraqi troops detonated in western Baghdad yesterday, killing two Iraqi civilians and wounding 10, police said. No troops were hurt.The attack came as a funeral procession was held nearby for the governor of Baghdad, Ali al-Haidari, who was assassinated Tuesday. It was not clear if the bomb targeted the mourners, which included Iraqi officials, or the troop convoy. The Ansar al-Sunnah Army claimed responsibility.Dr. Riyad al-Hiti at the hospital in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad, said four Iraqi civilians were killed and two injured when American soldiers opened fire after their convoy was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades in Ramadi. The American military had no information about the incident.The American military reported an American soldier with Task Force Olympia was killed and two were wounded yesterday when a patrol was attacked by small arms and rocket propelled grenades in Tal Afar in northern Iraq.

25 Killed in Suicide Attacks Aimed at Derailing Elections

25 Killed in Suicide Attacks Aimed at Derailing Elections

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