The Hindu : International : Surge in Iraq violence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 15, 2004

International

International

Surge in Iraq violence

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA, SEPT. 14. Violence in Iraq continued to surge for the third consecutive day on Tuesday, with a car bomb killing at least 47 persons in Baghdad.

In the deadliest attack since July, the car bomb exploded outside a police station on the busy Haifa Street in the Iraqi capital.

More than 100 persons were injured. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen body parts, spilled blood and mangled debris strewn across a large area. The explosion left a big crater on the road.

More than 100 persons were killed in Iraq on Sunday, with at least 13 dying in Haifa Street, following a helicopter attack on people who had gathered around a burning American military vehicle. At least 18 persons were killed on Monday during aerial bombardment in Fallujah.

The spurt in attacks comes as Iraq prepares for elections in January 2005.

12 policemen killed

On Tuesday, Iraqi fighters shot dead 12 policemen who were travelling in a bus in the restive town of Baquba, a short distance from Baghdad. Baquba, along with Fallujah and Ramadi, has emerged as a resistance stronghold.

In Baghdad, angry crowds gathered near the site of the explosion, denouncing the U.S. military and the Government of the interim Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi, for failing to protect police recruiting centres.

Agitated people surrounded the interim Interior Minister, Falah Naqib, as he visited the site of explosion.

Amid the increasing violence, Turkey has warned the U.S. that it would withdraw all its support for the occupation, unless American troops stopped their operations in Tal Afar.

Hoping to reassert control over major urban centres prior to the elections, U.S. forces have been attacking for the past one week the northern Iraqi town which has a predominantly Turkoman population supported by Turkey.

The Turkish Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gul, said, "What is being done there is harming the civilian population, it is wrong."

He warned, "Turkey's cooperation on issues regarding Iraq will come to a total stop if the operation continued." Without saying that it was halting its attacks, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Eric Edelman, said American forces were doing their best to keep civilian losses down to a minimum.

`Four more kidnapped'

Meanwhile, there has been no let-up in the kidnappings in Iraq, with AFP quoting the Islamic Secret Army as saying that it had kidnapped two Australians and two East Asians.

Australian officials said they were urgently investigating the report. The Islamic Secret Army had also abducted seven persons, including the three Indian truck drivers employed by a Kuwaiti transportation firm.

All the seven were freed following a hostage drama, which lasted over a month.

The Italian Foreign Minister is already in Kuwait to help free two nationals who had been abducted in Iraq.

The French Government is also facing a hostage crisis and is trying to free two journalists, Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were kidnapped in August. More than 100 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq since March 2003.

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