Iraq bomb kills five, US captures Saddam lieutenant

11.45am

BAGHDAD - A car bomb exploded outside a police station in central Iraq on Wednesday, killing five people and wounding nearly 30, while the United States military said it had captured one of Saddam Hussein's top lieutenants.

Denmark said initial tests showed mortar shells found buried in Iraq this month did not contain any chemical substances as originally suspected, and the Pentagon said a growing proportion of US military deaths in Iraq were due to suicide.

On the political front, US Governor Paul Bremer's administration in Baghdad signalled it was striving to meet demands, particularly by top Shi'ite Muslim cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, for a more democratic handover of power to Iraqis.

Near Saddam's home town of Tikrit, attackers killed two Pakistanis and a Turk, firing into trucks they were driving in a convoy carrying US military supplies, Iraqi police said.

The US military said five people were killed and 29 hurt in the car bombing in the restive town of Baquba, about 65km north of Baghdad. Many victims were Iraqi police.

There were conflicting reports on whether it was a suicide attack.

Police said they had seen a person driving the car and believed he had strapped his foot to the accelerator. Witnesses said a green car charged towards the main gate of the police compound and detonated in front of police and passers-by.

But a US military spokeswoman said the car had been packed with grenades and mortar bombs and was detonated remotely. US forces defused two other car bombs found in the area, she said.

US authorities said troops had captured a former leading figure in Saddam's Baath party from south of Baghdad who was on Washington's list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis.

"As a result of aggressive operations this week, the coalition announces the capture of Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, number 54 on the most wanted list," Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt told a news conference in Baghdad.

In a pre-dawn raid in the town of Samarra, about 100km north of Baghdad, US troops seized four nephews of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former right-hand man to Saddam and the most wanted man still at large in Iraq.

Ibrahim, number six on the most-wanted list and with a US$10 million ($14.82 million) bounty on his head, is believed to have been behind a number of the guerrilla attacks on US troops that Washington blames on Saddam supporters and foreign Islamic militants.

The US military said the capture of the relatives, two of whom were suspected of arranging safe houses for Ibrahim, made it more likely they would get him as well.

Although Denmark said its testing showed no chemical weapon in 36 mortar shells found in southern Iraq on January 9, it was sending samples to the United States for further tests. Earlier examination had suggested the shells could contain blister gas.

US president George W Bush ordered US-led forces to invade Iraq in March after accusing Saddam of possessing weapons of mass destruction. No such arms have been found so far.

The Pentagon said at least 21 US troops had committed suicide in Iraq, representing one in seven American "non-hostile" deaths since March.

"Fighting this kind of war is clearly going to be stressful for some people," Assistant Defence Secretary for Health Affairs William Winkenwerder told reporters, adding the military planned to deal with "battle stress" in Iraq.

A total of 496 US troops have been killed since March, 343 of them in combat and 153 in non-hostile incidents ranging from accidents to suicide, the Pentagon said.

Under a US plan to hand over power to Iraqis, regional caucuses will select a transitional assembly by the end of May and it will choose an interim government for sovereignty by the end of June. Full elections will follow in 2005.

Bremer has said he respects Sistani, influential with Iraq's 60 per cent Shi'ite majority who were repressed under Saddam, but says there is not enough time to organise an election by June.

US officials said they were reviewing the plan, especially how the caucus system would work.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq