Baghdad

Insurgents launched two separate rocket attacks in the Baghdad region on Saturday, but caused no damage or injuries, the military said. The first rocket landed in central Baghdad at 6:30am. An hour later, insurgents attacked a multinational forces base just north of the capital. – Sapa-AP

Iraqi Shi’ite militiamen were planting bombs in the street of a Baghdad slum amid echoing machinegun fire on Tuesday, as angry foot soldiers of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr cursed the Iraqi government and United States ”occupiers” after deadly fighting erupted overnight, killing as many as 40 people.

Clashes between armed men and United States-Iraqi forces in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City resulted in 18 killed and 136 wounded, an Iraqi Health Ministry official said on Tuesday. Witnesses said clashes in Sadr City were ongoing and that US forces were using tanks to respond to gunshots from armed men.

Confusion reigned on Monday over the fate of Saddam Hussein’s long-time right-hand man, following conflicting claims by Iraqi government and security officials over the capture of Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri. Meanwhile, a Turkish truck driver was reportedly released after his employer promised to stop its business in Iraq.

Iraq’s senior Sunni Muslim scholars said on Friday that two French reporters held hostage for two weeks are out of danger and their release is ”a matter of time”. Reporters Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot were kidnapped by a radical Sunni group demanding Paris rescind a ban on Islamic headscarves in state schools.

After three weeks of bloody conflict in Najaf, fresh fighting in Baghdad’s Sadr City suburb and a death toll creeping into the high hundreds have tarnished the reputation of radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr among many Iraqis, even though anti-United States feelings still run high.

A car bomb exploded north of the Iraqi capital on Sunday, killing two people and injuring four others, including a deputy provincial governor, police said. Bassam al-Khadran, one of several deputy governors working in the province, was injured in the blast. Both fatalities and the three other injured were al-Khadran’s bodyguards.

Seven people were killed, including two children, and 47 others wounded when at least one mortar bomb landed near a Baghdad police station on Tuesday, the Health Ministry said. A United States soldier and a civilian security guard were also wounded when another mortar fell near the city’s convention centre.

An agreement to end days of fighting in the holy city of Najaf is imminent, Iraq’s government spokesperson said on Friday, confirming that ministers are working in the holy city to end the standoff. Meanwhile, Unites States warplanes attacked several targets in Fallujah on Friday. Witnesses said several buildings were struck in three suburbs.

Insurgents loyal to radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr fought fierce battles on Thursday with United States and Iraqi forces in the holy city of Najaf that quickly spread to other Shi’ite areas. The violence in Najaf killed at least four people. Al-Sadr’s men also fought with US troops in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City.

Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin said on Tuesday he wanted to create a truth and reconciliation commission for Iraq, modelled on the experiences of post-apartheid South Africa. Such a commission, ”based on confessions and pardons, would be a way to strengthen the feeling of national unity”, said Amin.

Assailants triggered a coordinated series of explosions outside five churches in Baghdad and Mosul during evening services, killing 11 people and wounding more than 50 in the first major assault on Iraq’s Christian minority since the 15-month-old insurgency began.

Attackers shot and killed a senior Interior Ministry official and two of his bodyguards in a drive-by shooting at the official’s Baghdad home on Monday morning, according to the Interior Ministry. Insurgents have been increasingly targeting officials they accuse of collaborating with United States forces in Iraq.

Smiling broadly, Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz enjoyed his first taste of his newfound freedom on Tuesday after his life was spared thanks to the hasty withdrawal of Manila’s tiny military presence from Iraq. ”I am fine and relaxed. I am extremely happy and I can’t say anything more than this,” De la Cruz said.

At least nine people were killed when a huge car bomb exploded outside a police station in Baghdad on Monday in a near daily scene of chaos and bloodshed for the newly-sovereign Iraq. The latest attack capped a week of at least seven car bombings that have left scores of people dead and injured, throwing up a huge challenge for the government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

At least four people were killed and three wounded, including a small girl, in a bomb attack on Saturday targeting Iraqi Justice Minister Malek Dohan al-Hassan, who escaped unhurt, hospital officials said. The cause of the blast was attributed to a suicide car bomber by some people. Others said it was a powerful roadside device.

Thirteen people have been killed in two seperate car boms in Iraq. Ten people lost their lives in the first explosion in the northwestern city of Hadithah, while three suicide bombers were killed when their explosive-packed vehicle detonated near a military installation in the Shiite holy city of Karbala.

Gunmen assassinated a Iraqi provincial governor on Wednesday, hours after a suicide attacker detonated a massive car bomb that killed at least 10 and wounded 40 in the worst attack in Baghdad since the United States handed over power to the Iraqi interim government on June 28.

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi blamed ”criminals” for Wednesday’s car bombing near the Baghdad compound housing his government and said it may have been revenge for a police operation that netted hundreds of suspected criminals. ”We will bring these criminals to justice,” he said after the attack, which killed at least 10 people.

The Iraqi government said on Tuesday that a Filipino hostage threatened with beheading, as well as two Bulgarian truck drivers held by militants are still alive. The United Nations has also appointed a new representative to the country after France reinstated diplomatic ties after a hiatus of 13 years.

Iraq’s interim prime minister said on Monday that he will not interfere with an Iraqi tribunal’s right to decide whether Saddam Hussein and his top lieutenants should be executed on war crimes charges. Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said he is willing to abide by whatever the court decides in the trial, which is not expected to begin for months.

A group that has been holding a United States marine hostage for more than a week has beheaded the soldier and will soon release a video showing the murder, the group announced in a message posted on Arabic websites on Saturday. US military officials are checking the report, but could not confirm that it was accurate, reports said.

One wished him well, while another wished him a fate similar to what he allegedly bestowed upon hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. As former dictator Saddam Hussein appeared in court on Thursday, some of the 25-million people who spent the better part of their lives under his authority voiced mixed emotions about the proceedings.

Nearly three dozen Iraqi civilians died when a massive car bomb exploded near an Iraqi army recruiting base at the former Muthanna military airport in Baghdad on Thursday. Iraqi health officials said 35 people died and about 135 people were wounded in the explosion, which occurred at 9am as a crowd of job hunters gathered in front of the recruiting station.

A senior official at Iraq’s Ministry of Education was shot dead in Baghdad on Sunday, the second such attack here in 24 hours, an official said. Kamal Jarrah, the ministry’s director of cultural relations, was gunned down in front of his home in the west of the capital as he left for work, the official said.

An explosion on Sunday hit Saddam Hussein’s former main palace in Baghdad, now used by the United States-run coalition, in the first such direct strike but no casualties were immediately reported, officials said. A rocket or a mortar struck the roof of the Republican Palace, causing minor damage.