Blasts hit Baghdad churches

8.30am

BAGHDAD - Explosions have damaged churches in Baghdad, while the US military reported the deaths of four more American troops in bomb attacks elsewhere in Iraq.

A suicide car bomber killed three US troops, along with an Iraqi civilian, in Qaim near the Syrian border on Friday. The fourth died after a car bomb blast in Mosul the same day.

A mortar attack on Qaim also killed four Iraqis and wounded 30 on Saturday, a local hospital doctor said.

In another challenge for the US-backed interim government, a group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi vowed to attack foreign trucks bringing petrol and diesel into Iraq.

Five churches were hit in a string of bomb attacks before dawn that seemed designed to intimidate the country's small but deep-rooted Christian community, already shaken by a deadlier series of bombings of churches that killed 11 people in August.

"If they don't want us in Iraq, let them say it and we will leave," said Samir Hermiz, 40, standing by a Catholic church reduced to ashes. "I'm really thinking of leaving Iraq."

Iraq's 650,000 Christians, about three per cent of the population, are mostly Chaldeans, Assyrians and Catholics.

The US military has accused Zarqawi of carrying out bombings aimed at fuelling sectarian strife and civil war.

Some Iraqis say Washington exaggerates the threat from Zarqawi to disguise the strength of Iraq's homegrown insurgency.

Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group claimed responsibility for Thursday's suicide bombings that killed up to four Americans in the heart of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, seat of the government and home to the US and British embassies.

A Tawhid and Jihad pamphlet, shown to Reuters by an Oil Ministry official, said non-Iraqi trucks bringing in imported petrol and diesel would be "subject to destruction".

The pamphlet was distributed to oil officials in Mosul and elsewhere in the north, and to traders importing oil products.

"The attacks by Zarqawi and others are helping disrupt supply. We are taking the threat seriously," the official said.

The government, trying to stamp its authority on all of Iraq before January elections, on Wednesday told the rebel-held city of Falluja to hand over Zarqawi and his men, said by the US military to be holed up there, or face assault.

US marines, backed by Iraqi forces, said they had set up what they described as a "dynamic cordon" around Falluja since Thursday, setting up checkpoints and carrying out ground assaults on objectives outside the city's confines.

It said the stepped up measures were designed to "disrupt freedom of movement" by insurgents fleeing the city. Many non-combatant residents are also trying to leave fearing attack.

Residents said Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, was quieter after heavy US air strikes and ground operations aimed at Zarqawi targets on Thursday and Friday.

But they said US forces bombarded western Falluja, destroying a house and killing a baby girl on Saturday. Reuters television footage showed the dead infant in hospital with its arm blown off. Three other children and a woman were wounded.

The US military said recent air raids were intended to thwart attacks it said Zarqawi's network was planning during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which has just begun.

Fears of a looming confrontation in Falluja rose on Friday when US forces detained Khaled al-Jumaili, a cleric who had been the city's leading negotiator in talks with the government.

In Baghdad, a rocket or mortar round that hit the compound of the Ibn al-Bitar hospital killed one person and wounded five. A rocket also struck the car park of a hotel used by foreign news organisations and diplomats, but caused no casualties.

Up to 650 British troops may be moved nearer Baghdad to cover for US units battling insurgents in Falluja and elsewhere, British newspapers reported. A Defence Ministry spokesman in London confirmed discussions had taken place with American commanders but said no decision had been taken.

The deployment into more dangerous areas would be politically charged and military anlysts said it would represent a significant escalation of Britain's profile in Iraq.

It would be the first time British troops have operated outside the relatively quiet Basra area in the south.

The US military is investigating the reported refusal this week by some US troops to take part in a supply convoy in Iraq. A statement called it an "isolated incident."

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq