Deadly bombs hit Iraq, execution video released

10.00am UPDATE


BAGHDAD - Car bomb attacks brought more carnage to the streets of two Iraqi cities on Monday, killing at least 26 people as the interim government struggles to stamp out an insurgency ahead of elections scheduled for January.

More than 100 people were wounded as bombers struck twice in Baghdad and once in the northern city of Mosul.

In the first Baghdad blast, a car blew up near an entrance to the heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the interim government, killing at least 15 people and wounding 80, a hospital official said.

A second bomb exploded about an hour later as a US military convoy passed along Sadoun Street, a major thoroughfare east of the Tigris river, where several hotels used by foreign contractors are located. No US troops were killed or wounded.

In Mosul, a car bomb exploded outside a primary school, killing five people, including two children, police said.

US President George W Bush condemned the bombing while speaking at a campaign forum near Des Moines, Iowa, ahead of next month's presidential election.

"We're dealing with an enemy that has ... no conscience. Today, if you noticed, there was a car bomb near a school. These people are brutal. They're the exact opposite of Americans. We value life and human dignity; they don't care about that. We believe in freedom; they have an ideology of hate. And they're tough, but not as tough as America."

In further bloodshed, Islamic militants distributed a video to an international news agency showing the killings of two men who identified themselves as an Italian of Iraqi origin and a Turk. A militant in the video accused the two of spying.

They were shown blindfolded and kneeling in front of a ditch before being shot, a scene likely to raise fresh concern over the fate of foreign hostages in Iraq. They include British engineer Ken Bigley and two French journalists.

However, two Indonesian women who had been held hostage by an Iraqi militant group were handed on Monday to the United Arab Emirates embassy in Baghdad, Abu Dhabi Television reported.

In Baghdad's Sadoun Street, witnesses said a small truck charged towards a group of four-wheel-drive vehicles and detonated, destroying half a dozen cars, shattering scores of shop windows and spraying wreckage across the street.

At least six people were killed and more than a dozen wounded, a source at Iraq's Interior Ministry said.

"I saw a head in one place and a leg in another. This was a suicide bombing," said one bystander as thick clouds of black smoke billowed behind him. US helicopters circled overhead.

The car bomb in Mosul may have exploded prematurely, a US officer at the scene said, as there was no obvious target in the area, a quiet district in the south of the city.

Meanwhile, US forces kept up operations against rebel-held towns aimed at establishing control throughout the country ahead of the nationwide polls.

Air strikes were launched against suspected militants in Falluja and operations to restore government control continued in Samarra, a city that US and Iraqi forces overran on Friday.

In a 36-hour blitz, some 3000 US troops and 2000 Iraqi soldiers, backed by US warplanes and artillery, stormed Samarra, 100km north of Baghdad, in an effort to dislodge an estimated 500 to 1000 guerrillas.

US forces said they killed 125 fighters and captured 88 in the assault, which destroyed dozens of buildings and, according to locals, inflicted a heavy toll on civilians.

Iraqi Defence Minister Hazim al-Shalaan told Al Arabiya television that Iraqi forces captured 42 suspected foreign fighters there. They included 18 Egyptians and 18 Sudanese.

"They have been handed over to coalition forces and after they are interrogated they will be returned to Iraqi forces."

Residents tried to bury their dead on Monday as the cemetery was off limits on Sunday, moving through the city streets waving sticks with white flags, weeping as they bore the coffins.

Iraq's interior minister, who comes from Samarra, said he did not believe any civilians had been killed in the offensive, a statement which drew an angry response from residents. The US military said it had tried to avoid civilian casualties.

The two biggest challenges facing US and Iraqi forces are Falluja and Ramadi, guerrilla strongholds west of Baghdad which the US military tried unsuccessfully to capture in April.

The US-backed interim government hopes the offensive against insurgents and militants will stabilise Iraq and encourage people to vote in the national assembly elections.

However, Iraqis are less confident they will vote in the elections than they were three months ago, an opinion poll released on Monday showed.

On Monday, US warplanes bombarded areas of Falluja for the third consecutive night, targeting suspected hideouts of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers.

Doctors in Falluja said at least seven people were killed and 14 wounded and said some were civilians. The military said it was a building used by Zarqawi's group to store weapons.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq