Iraq suicide bombs kill 11, UN to rule on handover

HILLA, Iraq - Suicide car bombers killed at least 11 Iraqis and wounded 58 foreign troops on Wednesday in twin attacks on a military base south of Baghdad in the run up to a UN report on the feasibility of direct elections in Iraq.

A spokesman for Polish-led forces in Hilla, about 100km south of Baghdad, said 44 Iraqis were also wounded in the blasts. The wounds of the soldiers were not life-threatening.

Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Strzelecki told Reuters that guards outside the base managed to stop one of the cars by shooting at it but that a second car exploded after smashing into a wall.

"At 7:15 local time (1715 NZT) near the logistics base there was a terrorist attack using two cars," Strzelecki said. "We found the bodies of the two drivers, and two Iraqis standing in the street were killed."

US-led Coalition Provisional Authority spokeswoman Hilary White later put the death toll much higher.

"We can confirm that more than 11 Iraqis were killed," she told Reuters. "It killed men, women and children."

The blasts blew the facing and roofs off of homes outside the base, and, like car bombs last week that killed about 100 people as they enlisted in the Iraqi army and police, left survivors blaming Iraq's US occupiers for the bloodshed.

"We heard the sound of a plane overhead and a rocket landed and then a second rocket landed," said Omar Zayed, 17, who lives near the site of the explosion.

Two young boys who were wounded in the explosion lost their parents. One of them, 10-year-old Seif Saleh, lay in a hospital bed complaining of pain and asking for his father as the coffins of his parents were brought into the hospital.

Relatives of one of the dead wept hysterically on the corridor floor and beat their hands on the wall.

The wounded foreigners included at least 12 Filipinos, 12 Poles, 10 Hungarians and two Americans.

The attacks are the latest in a string against soldiers of countries helping the United States occupy Iraq, and highlighted the violence that threatens US plans to formally hand sovereignty over to Iraqis by mid-year.

The United Nations is expected to delay recommendations on the form of an Iraqi interim government that would take power on June 30 from the US-led occupation, diplomats said on Wednesday.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is scheduled to present a report on Thursday or Friday that will say direct elections are not possible by June 30, as Shi'ite leaders wanted, and suggest dates for an election later in the year or early next year, the envoys said.

However, a key section of the anticipated report -- what form of caretaker government Annan should recommend -- will not be included, they added.

Annan leaves for Japan on Friday and will return on February 25. His senior adviser, Lakhdar Brahimi, will be in Japan at the same time under a previously arranged trip and the two may refine proposals by the time they return.

Brahimi had prepared a report after spending a week in Iraq at the request of both Annan and the White House.

He and his aides made clear last week that elections are desirable but needed more than a few months to be organized.

Brahimi is expected to brief the 15 Security Council members at a lunch on Thursday about his week-long trip.

What is clear, according to UN diplomats and Bush administration officials, is that there will be no general elections before the June 30 transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government, as Shi'ite leaders had wanted, and that the original US plan for caucuses throughout the country is also off the table.

The envoys told Reuters that Brahimi would probably move up US plans for elections for a permanent Iraqi government by giving a window late this year or early next year for the polls.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq