Bomb kills 17 in Iraq

BAGHDAD - A bomb by a fuel truck has set off a huge fireball in which at least 17 people were killed in Baghdad, as violence gripped Iraq in the wake of the capture of Saddam Hussein.

Shortly after dawn, the bomb in the Bayya'a district of Baghdad caused a huge ball of fire that caught a minibus and several civilian cars packed with people heading to work, police said.

At least 17 people, mostly passengers, were killed and around 16 others badly burnt in the inferno, they said.

It was not immediately clear whether the bomb had been in the truck itself, or whether it had gone off at the roadside causing the truck carrying fuel to explode.

Roadside bombs are a favourite weapon of anti-American guerrillas who use them to attack US military patrols. Civilians are also caught up in such attacks.

The violence was another blow to any hopes that the capture of Saddam last Saturday near his hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, would ease guerrilla attacks.

In a continued crackdown on guerrillas, American troops raided a house in the town of Samarra and captured 73 suspected insurgents on Tuesday, including the leader of a guerrilla cell, the US Army said.

It said early today that the offensive was stepped up overnight to isolate and eliminate former members of Saddam's regime and other cells fighting the US-led coalition and seeking to destabilise Iraq.

The US 4th Infantry Division, based in Tikrit, was running Operation Ivy Blizzard in Samarra, along with Iraqi security forces, the army said.

Two army brigades ringed the town, cutting it off from the outside world while soldiers of a third brigade made house-to-house searches. They also scoured workshops and junkyards at the industrial sector of town.

At times they used hammers and demolition charges to open doors at shops or homes.

Five people were arrested and a small amount of weapons were seized.

In Washington, Bush said in an ABC News interview that Saddam deserved the "ultimate penalty" for his iron-fisted rule of Iraq and that Iraqis should conduct the trial.

"Let's just see what penalty he gets, but I think he ought to receive the ultimate penalty (death)...for what he has done to his people," Bush said.

US officials have said any trial is still some way off.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had taken over the interrogation of Saddam, whose whereabouts are being kept secret. He would not say whether the ousted Iraqi leader was cooperating.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said he hoped Saddam might lift the lid on his alleged illegal weapons programme. Blair has been under fire at home for the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction he used as the main reason for attacking Iraq.

But Washington got a boost for its efforts to stabilise the country and its economy when Germany and France joined the United States in saying on Tuesday they were prepared to offer substantial debt relief to Baghdad. This followed visits by US special envoy James Baker to the two main European opponents of the war that toppled Saddam.

The size of reduction in Iraq's $120 billion debt will be agreed later.

At UN headquarters in New York, Iraq's foreign minister accused the world body of failing his country by leaving Saddam in power for decades. He appealed for the United Nations to resume a leading role in Baghdad immediately.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq