Three bomb attacks kill at least nine in Iraq

8.55am


BAGHDAD - A car bomb exploded at the entrance to an American military base in Iraq this morning, killing three United States soldiers just hours after separate blasts elsewhere left two servicemen and at least four Iraqis dead.

Witnesses said they saw a car ram a checkpoint outside the base in Khaldiya, 110km west of Baghdad, and explode as a number of soldiers were getting out of a vehicle.

A US Army spokesman said six soldiers were wounded. All three attacks took place in the Sunni triangle where much of the violence against US-led occupation forces and Iraqis seen to be cooperating with them has taken place.

"Three taskforce All-American soldiers were killed and six were wounded when a vehicle-born explosive device detonated at an installation in Khaldiya," the spokesman said, adding that several Iraqis were also wounded.

The violence came a day after two United Nations security experts arrived in Iraq to liaise with US-led authorities on any future return of its staff. The United Nations pulled international staff out of Iraq last year after two suicide bomb attacks on its Baghdad headquarters.

Earlier today a bomb had exploded in Samarra, killing four Iraqis and wounding 40 people, including seven US soldiers who were slightly hurt. In another attack, near Falluja, 50km west of the Iraqi capital, two American soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb exploded as their convoy passed.

US officials said the Samarra bomb was an attempt to derail council elections in the town, 100km north of Baghdad. They said the blast was caused when a device placed on the road under a vehicle exploded.

The Samarra blast, outside the courthouse and town council buildings and close to the main police headquarters, scattered wrecked cars and broken glass across a wide area.

Bob Silverman, head of governance for the US-led administration in the area, said the bomb went off shortly before councillors were due to elect representatives to the provincial council. The vote would now be delayed a few days.

"I am sure the bomb was meant to prevent the vote," he said.

Analysts have warned that insurgents would try to derail US-led efforts to hand over power to Iraqis.

The UN team in Iraq will assess the security situation amid calls from Washington for more involvement from the world body in Iraq, in particular to determine if the country is ready to hold early national elections.

Military Police officer First Lieutenant Alexis Marks was 100m away when the Samarra bomb exploded. "The blast knocked me off my feet," she said. "It shook all the vehicles and everyone nearby was thrown to the ground."

Since the invasion in March, 512 US soldiers have died in Iraq, at least 354 of them in action.

In Washington, the White House insisted the search would go on for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, despite the resignation of the man leading the hunt.

"I don't think they existed," David Kay said yesterday after stepping down. "What everyone was talking about is stockpiles produced after the end of the last (1991) Gulf War, and I don't think there was a large-scale production programme in the '90s."

Kay's departure had been expected, but his comments will put more pressure on President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair over their justification for going to war.

"We remain confident that the Iraq Survey Group will uncover the truth about Saddam Hussein's regime, the regime's weapons of destruction programmes," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. A spokesman for Blair said: "Our position is unchanged."

The renewed controversy over the reasons for going to war comes as the occupying powers scrambled to rescue a plan for handing sovereignty back to Iraqis.

Under the original US-backed plan, regional caucuses would select a transitional Iraqi assembly by the end of May and this would appoint an interim government that would take over sovereignty by the end of June. Full elections would follow in 2005.

But Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most revered Shi'ite cleric, wants elections to be held sooner.

Washington has asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to send a team to Iraq to determine whether early elections are feasible, hoping this will end the controversy.

US officials were optimistic the United Nations would send a delegation, which is separate to the security team in Iraq. Annan is expected to announce his decision as early as Tuesday.

- REUTERS


Herald Feature: Iraq