Insurgents in Iraq signalled their determination to provoke havoc ahead of next week’s handover of power by killing as many as 100 people in simultaneous attacks in five cities on Thursday.
The attacks appeared to be coordinated and showed a new level of planning and sophistication. Most of the victims were civilians and Iraqi police officers but three American soldiers also died.
A group headed by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whom the US believes is the mastermind of insurgent activity, said on the internet that it had orchestrated the violence.
Iraq’s interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said the leadership had been braced for an explosion of militant activity, and vowed to crush the insurgency. He said he believed Zarqawi was behind some of the violence but blamed Ba’athists loyal to Saddam Hussein for at least two of the attacks.
”These are isolated incidents,” said Allawi. ”We are going face them and we are going to defeat them and we are going to crush them.”
The most savage attacks were in Mosul, in the north, where four early morning bombings claimed at least 44 lives. The targets were two police stations, a police academy and the Jumhuri hospital.
American troops had to be called in to regain control of one police station after it was struck by a car bomb. Gunmen fought battles with US troops and Iraqi police.
Police blocked main roads and imposed a night-time curfew. Local television told Iraqis to stay at home.
At the same time masked gunmen in Ramadi and Baquba, two troubled Sunni towns north and west of Baghdad, stormed police stations, killing several officers.
The fighting was particularly heavy in Baquba, 56km north of the capital, where gangs of armed men ambushed a US military patrol, attacked a government building in the city centre using mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, and fired on a police station.
The US military responded, dropping three 225kg bombs on what they described as ”insurgent strong points” near a football stadium at 9am. At least 13 people were killed in the fighting and 15 injured.
A Saudi website published a statement in which a group called the Battalion of Unification and Holy War claimed responsibility for the Baquba attacks in the name of Zarqawi. The message called on the people of Baquba to ”comply with the resistance”. An audiotape apparently issued by Zarqawi vowed to assassinate Allawi.
Iraqis were told to stay inside ”because these days are going to witness campaigns and attacks against the occu pation troops and those who stand beside them”.
One report said many fighters in Baquba wore yellow headbands inscribed with the name of Zarqawi’s group. They handed out leaflets warning Iraqis not to work with the Americans. ”The flesh of collaborators is tastier than that of Americans,” the leaflets said.
There were attacks on police stations in Ramadi, where gunmen wearing black masks fired rocket-propelled grenades destroying one station and killing seven officers.
In Baghdad a man dressed as a police officer detonated a car bomb near a checkpoint in the southern suburb of Dora. Four Iraqi soldiers were killed and at least one American soldier was injured.
There was also fighting in Falluja, 48km west of Baghdad, regarded as the centre of the resistance movement. US jets dropped bombs and a US Cobra helicopter was forced down. The crew escaped unhurt.
Senior US officials in Baghdad have warned publicly for months that they expect the level of violence to rise ahead of the transfer of power to an appointed Iraqi government on Wednesday.
The US military insisted it was still in control on Thursday. ”Coalition forces feel confident with the situation,” said Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy chief of operations for the US military.
Yet the Iraqi security forces, who will be expected to take ever greater responsibility for law and order in the months ahead, are still vulnerable. There are shortfalls of trained police and soldiers and shortages of weapons, radios and body armour.
In recent months emphasis has been placed on overhauling the police force, although more than half the 89 000 officers have still had no training. Yet officials say the quality of the Iraqi police, army and paramilitary will improve.
A British military source said before Thursday’s attacks: ”There are things that have gone wrong but frankly in an undertaking of this size it would have been surprising if things didn’t go wrong. But a large proportion has gone very right.” – Guardian Unlimited Â