Guards and inmates die in Baghdad jail battle

BAGHDAD - At least nine prisoners and guards were killed in a gun battle at an Iraqi high-security jail after detained guerrilla suspects, some of them foreign, grabbed weapons and tried to flee, officials said.

One inmate snatched a Kalashnikov rifle from a guard as a handful of high-risk prisoners were taken out at dawn to clean the yard, a guard from the Baghdad prison said. After raiding the prison armoury, the group freed more comrades but US and Iraqi troops based around the jail quelled the revolt.

Five staff and four inmates were killed and five prisoners and a US soldier were wounded, the US military said, denying assertions by police that at least 20 detainees, who include some of the most violent of Iraq's insurgents, died.

A Russian, Tunisian and Saudi were involved, officials said.

In other violence, rebels ambushed an Iraqi army patrol yesterday near Dujail, 60km north of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and wounding seven, police said.

Al Arabiya television said a little-known militant group had threatened to kill a hostage unless France ended its "illegitimate presence" in Iraq, and showed footage of a man, seated before militants with rifles pointed at his head, who identified himself as Bernard.

French engineer Bernard Planche, who works at a water treatment plant, was kidnapped earlier this month in Baghdad. France opposed the Iraq war and has no troops or police in Iraq.

Serious attacks have increased in the past week following a lull around the Dec. 15 election, when some rebels from the once dominant Sunni Arab minority observed an informal truce to encourage their community to vote for the first time and stake a share in the new parliament.

Some Sunni politicians have warned that anger at results they say are forged and which confirmed the dominant position of Shi'ite Islamists could prompt more attacks, not just by the al Qaeda-linked Islamists bent on wrecking the US-backed political process but also by Sunni groups that backed the vote.

The Electoral Commission, assailed by protests over the past week, produced a UN official at its daily news conference to insist the ballot was fair.

Commission chief Hussein Hindawi said a few ballot boxes out of more than 30,000 might be ruled invalid but that this would not affect the overall result.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, the driving force behind the main Sunni electoral bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, issued a statement condemning the past week's violence.

"At the time when many political groups are preparing to end the political crisis through flexibility and patience and insight ... the party condemns these acts and calls on all sides to be patient and to act responsibly," it said.

Up to 3000 people marched to protest at the poll results in the northern Sunni Arab city of Samarra today, police said.

But despite public protests, leaders on all sides say talks have started behind the scenes to put together a coalition government of all the main factions, including Sunnis who mostly boycotted January's interim election.

US officials are working hard to mediate in the hope that a consensus government can bring some stability and allow Washington to start withdrawing some of its 160,000 troops.

They have dismissed some calls for fresh elections.

"I don't think most (groups) are suggesting that there needs to be a re-run because it is the belief that the elections were fair. That is our view as well," a White House spokesman said.

Even without extremely bloody attacks, stability that might bring prosperity is elusive.

US military engineers said December was the worst month so far for attacks on Iraqis working on US-funded reconstruction projects, and Baghdad now had only six hours of power a day.

To make political headway, President Jalal Talabani is launching a series of bilateral meetings at his Kurdish power base, starting with Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the most powerful Shi'ite Islamist leader, tomorrow.

Hakim's Shi'ite coalition partner, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, will also attend, an aide to Jaafari said.

Hakim on Wednesday backed a plan for a local referendum that could hand the strategic northern oil city of Kirkuk to the Kurds, the Shi'ites' allies in the present, interim government.

- REUTERS