More than 30 United States soldiers were reportedly killed in a helicopter crash on Wednesday, in the biggest single loss of life of American life in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, just four days before the country’s landmark elections.
Meanwhile, four Iraqis died in a car bombing near the powder-keg city of Kirkuk, as insurgents acted on threats to escalate violence ahead of the vote, despite an official announcement that yet another top al-Qaeda loyalist had been arrested.
Thirty-one US soldiers were killed, according to reports on two US news networks, when the marine helicopter crashed in western Iraq.
On a day that another four US marines were killed in combat in Al-Anbar and an American soldier was killed in an ambush north of Baghdad, the Pentagon estimated that the conflict costs US taxpayers $4-million (R24-million) a month.
It is unclear whether the transport helicopter crashed, not far from the Jordanian border, by accident or whether the chopper was attacked, CNN said.
Another 13 US soldiers were wounded — two in the ambush near the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Duluiyah; seven in a car bombing on the perilous Baghdad airport road; and four when a booby-trapped vehicle exploded in Tikrit.
One civilian was also killed in the blast in Saddam Hussein’s hometown, local officials said, as a string of other attacks rocked Iraq on Wednesday, as rebels stepped up their campaign of intimidation ahead of Sunday’s polls.
Four Iraqis were killed and 11 wounded in a double suicide car-bomb attack outside a police station near the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.
”Two vehicles driven by suicide bombers blew up at around 11.00am [8am GMT] in front of the police station in the town of Riyad,” about 32km west of Kirkuk, General Sarhad Kader Mohammed said.
In restive northern areas, rebels pounded eight polling stations with rockets, mortar shells and bombs within a few hours, police and officials said.
‘He killed many people’
Faced with the violence, Interior Minister Falah Naqib announced that a suspected henchman of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been arrested and pledged reward money of up to $200 000 to security forces that net wanted militants.
The man, known only as Abu Saada, ”is a Zarqawi assistant. He took part in many crimes in Salaheddin and Nineveh … He killed many people,” Naqib said.
”We are now beginning to dismantle the terrorist cells. We have infiltrated these terrorist cells,” he said, adding that nine others were also arrested.
Loyalists of the al-Qaeda front man, as well as several other extremist organisations, have vowed to disrupt the polls and warned the population against taking part in the electoral process.
”Trained snipers will be ready to kill the apostates who go to the electoral lairs,” warned a statement signed by Zarqawi’s organisation.
Low turnout in Sunni Muslim areas
Close to 280 000 expatriate Iraqis have registered to vote in Sunday’s elections, the first since the US-led invasion and hailed as the first free Iraqi vote for half a century.
But voter turnout is expected to be low in Sunni Muslim areas, due to the security threat and boycott calls by Sunni parties and clerics arguing that elections should not be held until all foreign troops leave Iraq.
But the incumbent prime minister, US-backed Iyad Allawi, has signalled no interest in setting a timetable for a withdrawal of coalition troops.
”I will not set final dates because dates now would be both reckless and dangerous,” Allawi told reporters on Tuesday.
The declaration came as a US newspaper reported that the US army plans to maintain about 120 000 troops in Iraq for at least two more years, citing the army’s top operations officer.
The White House is to seek $80-billion in supplementary funding, mainly for Iraq and Afghanistan — also implying that the army is not relying on Iraqi forces to replace foreign troops in the imminent future.
And barely a day after eight freed Chinese hostages flew home, a bearded man identified as Roy Hallums appeared in a videotape broadcast on al-Jazeera television, begging Arab leaders to secure his release.
Sitting with a gun to his head, the hostage was seen crushing his hands together in nerves.
Last month, the US embassy said American Roy Hallums (56) had been kidnapped in November, one of six persons taken from the office of the Saudi Arabian Trading and Contracting Company in Baghdad.
US experts were studying the tape to confirm his identity. — Sapa-AFP