Iraq attacks kill 15 Iraqis, three US soldiers

11.00am - UPDATE

BAGHDAD - A series of explosions across Iraq killed at least 18 people on Saturday as the United States predicted an upturn of violence ahead of a Muslim holiday.

Guerrillas killed nine in a car bomb blast in the northern city of Mosul, a separate bomb killed three US soldiers north of Baghdad and at least six were killed in a pair of explosions in a crowded residential area of the capital. US military officials have warned of the possibility of more violence against US forces and those seen as cooperating with them ahead of the Feast of the Sacrifice, given that guerrillas have often struck on significant dates.

"We heard the blast and saw that the deceased was missing," said Ali Muzan at the scene of the second late evening blast in Baghdad. "He died on the way to the hospital.

The explosion was in the same Baladiyyat district of Baghdad where an earlier blast killed at least five civilians, according to hospital sources.

Earlier in the day, police and hospital officials in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, said 44 people were wounded by the car bomb outside a police station. Debris was scattered 300 meters (yards) away and body parts littered the scorched ground.

Thick smoke billowed from blazing vehicles and windows across a wide radius were shattered. US officers said there were no US casualties.

The US military said three US soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb blew up next to a convoy travelling between Kirkuk and Tikrit, the hometown of ousted leader Saddam Hussein 175 km north of Baghdad.

The deaths brought to 364 the number of US soldiers killed in action since the start of the Iraq war last March. Including non-combat deaths, the toll is 522.

Soldiers and policemen in Baghdad gave conflicting accounts of the first blast in Baghdad's Baladiyyat district, some saying it was mortar fire and others rockets. A father and son who ran a kiosk nearby were killed, sources at a hospital said.

Guerrillas have often struck on significant dates -- a car bomb destroyed a Baghdad restaurant on New Year's Eve, killing eight, and on October 27, the first day of Ramadan, coordinated suicide attacks in Baghdad killed at least 35.

Despite the violence, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said experts will arrive within days to assess the feasibility of elections before a June 30 deadline for the handover of sovereignty from the US-led coalition to an Iraqi government.

All but a few UN international staff left Iraq last year after suicide attacks on its headquarters in Baghdad, including one on August 19 that killed 22 people, among whom was head of mission Sergio Vieira de Mello.

The UN electoral team will spend several weeks travelling the country to assess how possible it would be to hold a free and fair national poll.

US authorities in Iraq have said they will listen to UN recommendations, but the head of the Iraqi Governing Council, Adnan Pachachi, said on Saturday no one would necessarily be bound by any advice the UN offers.

"The UN will make recommendations, not decisions," he told a news conference. "It's only a recommendation, we have the right to accept or reject it, and to make the final decision."

The United Nations is returning at Washington's request, after US plans for the handover of sovereignty were rejected by Iraq's leading Shi'ite cleric.

The initial plan was for regional caucuses to select a transitional assembly by the end of May. The assembly would then pick a government to take over sovereignty by end-June.

But Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, revered by much of Iraq's 60 per cent Shi'ite majority, has said the new government should be directly elected.

Washington, and many members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, say that is not possible as there are no voter rolls and security remains precarious.

Separately, Iraq said it would attend security talks with neighbouring states in Kuwait mid-February, opening a chapter in diplomatic and international ties.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq