Insurgents exploded a suicide car bomb and launched two mortar shells at Iraq’s interior ministry during National Police Day celebrations on Monday, killing 29 people and injuring 18, officials said. The United States ambassador and Iraq’s interior and defence ministers were in attendance but were far from the attacks.
An internet statement by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the name of his al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorist group rebuked Sunni Arabs for taking part in last month’s parliamentary elections, saying they had ”thrown a rope” to save US policy.
Meanwhile, the US military said eight US troops and four American civilians died aboard a US Army Black Hawk helicopter that crashed late on Saturday in northern Iraq. The military initially said only that there were eight passengers and four crew members aboard.
The military statement came after a particularly deadly four-day period for Americans, with 28 killed since Thursday, including 24 troops.
With the latest military deaths, at least 2 207 US service members have died since the war started in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
According to the United Kingdom-based website Iraq Body Count, between 27 787 and 31 317 ordinary Iraqis have died since the invasion in March 2003.
The military said it isn’t yet known what caused the crash and an investigation will take some time. The helicopter went down about 11km east of Tal Afar, a northern city near the Syrian border that has seen heavy fighting with insurgents.
The Black Hawk was part of a two-helicopter team providing support for the 101st Airborne Division and was flying between bases when communications were lost, the military said.
It was the deadliest helicopter crash in Iraq since a CH-53 Sea Stallion went down in bad weather in western Iraq on January 26 2005, killing 31 US service members.
Attack on interior ministry
The attack on the interior ministry began with a suicide car bomber who exploded his vehicle near an entrance checkpoint. Less than an hour later, two mortar rounds landed about 800m from where police were gathered to mark National Police Day.
At least 29 people were killed and 18 injured, mostly police officers, said Ala’a AbidAli, an official at al-Kindi hospital. Several police cars were destroyed in the explosions, and pieces of body parts could be seen on the ground.
US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr and Defence Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi were among hundreds gathered to watch a parade of marching soldiers, police patrols and military equipment, but they were about 800m from the mortar explosion. It wasn’t clear if the three were still in the area when the mortar hit, and the US embassy didn’t immediately return calls asking if Khalilzad was hurt.
In other violence on Monday, gunmen assassinated an investigative judge in Kirkuk, police Captain Farhad Talabani said. In Baghdad, gunmen fired on three people working on Iraq’s de-Ba’athification commission, killing one, police Captain Qassim Hussein said.
Gunmen also killed an Iraqi intelligence officer and a doctor in separate attacks, Hussein said. Five bodies bound and blindfolded were found shot to death in Baghdad late on Sunday, police said. A car bomb exploded west of Baquba, killing two civilians, police said.
Iraq’s Council of Ministers on Monday said that Dr Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum, who resigned as oil minister last week over increases in consumer fuel prices, has again resumed his post as oil minister after the prime minister and president asked him to.
Internet statement
The internet statement by al-Zarqawi was posted on Monday on an Islamic website known for publishing extremist material. The authenticity could not be confirmed, but the tape sounded like the Jordanian-born leader of the group.
”This is a call to the Sunnis, in general and the followers of the Islamic Party in particular,” al-Zarqawi said, referring to the Islamic Party in Iraq. The party is the biggest political home for Iraq’s Sunni Arabs, with Mohsen Abdul-Hamid its spiritual leader.
”Where are you being led to? Don’t you fear God?” al-Zarqawi asked.
Referring to the December 15 elections, he said: ”At the time, it was very clear to everyone that the crusader enemy was losing, and then you threw a rope to save him.”
Al-Zarqawi accused the Islamic Party and Sunnis of collaborating with the US and said those who voted in the parliamentary elections are ”hypocrites”.
He asked for divine punishment: ”God, curse the leaders of the Islamic Party and those who collaborated with them.”
He said the insurgents could have disrupted the elections, ”but we did not do it to avoid killing some of the Sunnis who were confused” over whether to take part.
He also said the US’s announcement last month that it will withdraw some troops from Iraq this year is a victory for the Islamic forces.
Three senior members of the Islamic party declined to respond to al-Zarqawi’s statement.
Election results will be released after the four-day Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha, which begins on Tuesday, said Hussein Hindawi, a member of Iraq’s electoral commission.
Officials on Monday cancelled a news conference where they had hoped to announce more preliminary results, saying they are still auditing the results from about 50 ballot boxes and want to announce all results at once.
Government of national unity
The leader of Iraq’s main Sunni Arab political group said after meeting President Jalal Talabani on Sunday that significant headway has been made in forming a government of national unity.
”Talabani and I have an identical point of view regarding the formation of a national unity government based on consensus,” Adnan al-Dulaimi said.
Al-Dulaimi confirmed that Iraq’s two Kurdish leaders, Talabani and Kurdistan regional President Massoud Barzani, have been mediating with other groups to form a coalition government.
Their efforts seem to have forged an understanding between the main Shi’ite religious bloc and al-Dulaimi’s group — which represent two traditionally hostile camps whose enmity often threatens to plunge Iraq into sectarian warfare.
Shi’ite leaders have threatened reprisals against the minority Sunni Arabs following twin suicide attacks that killed more than 100 people last week. They have blamed the attacks on both the Sunni-Arab-led insurgency and some Sunni Arab political groups they say openly support the militants.
Talabani said on Saturday that Iraq’s political groups could form a coalition government within weeks — and some experts say the new government could be formed next month.
Forming a viable broad-based government is a key American goal because such an administration, if it includes Sunni Arabs, could help defuse the insurgency.
The US military released more details about how a French hostage Bernard Planche was freed on Saturday, saying his captors fled as Iraqi army soldiers searching for weapons caches approached a farmhouse west of Baghdad and he ran to soldiers at a nearby checkpoint. Iraqi police on Sunday had said Planche had been thrown out of a car approaching a checkpoint.
Planche (52), who was working for a NGO he started himself, was abducted on December 5. The defence ministry in Paris said Planche was returning to France on Monday. — Sapa-AP