BAGHDAD, 5 July 2004 — Iraqi troops thwarted a car bombing yesterday outside their regional headquarters northeast of Baghdad, killing an attacker before he could detonate his vehicle. Two bystanders also died in the assault.
Meanwhile, the fate of a kidnapped US Marine from Lebanon remained unclear after an extremist group, the Ansar Al-Sunna Army, denied that a statement attributed to it and posted Saturday on an extremist website was genuine. The Saturday statement claimed Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, a Marine of Lebanese origin, had been killed. However, a statement yesterday on Ansar Al-Sunna’s own site claimed the earlier declaration was false.
The would be car-bombing occurred in Baqubah, scene of fierce fighting last week between American soldiers and rebels who tried to seize government buildings and police stations. According to Iraqi police, the would-be attacker was stopped for a routine search at an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint near the unit’s headquarters. The driver jumped from the vehicle and shouted “God is Great” and “I’m going to kill you.”
Guardsmen opened fire, killing him and triggering the explosives in the car, according to police chief Waleed Al-Azawi. Two bystanders were killed in the explosion, hospital officials said.
Iraqi officials have blamed foreign fighters and religious extremists for the wave of vehicle bombings which have swept the country in recent months. The wave has led to fears that religious fanatics and Saddam Hussein loyalists may be joining forces to fight both the multinational force and the new Iraqi government. Although Iraq regained sovereignty last Monday, about 160,000 foreign troops, most of them Americans, remain here under a UN resolution to help the new government restore security.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi politely but firmly rejected offers from Jordan’s King Abdallah, telling ABC’s “This Week” that “we are not asking” for additional soldiers. Allawi’s government is expected to announce a package of initiatives to combat the insurgency, including limited emergency rule and an offer of amnesty to some of those who fought the US-led occupation.
Allawi’s spokesman, Georges Sada, suggested Saturday that guerrillas who fought the Americans before the sovereignty transfer could be eligible because their actions were legitimate acts of resistance.
However, the deputy prime minister for national security, Bahram Saleh, took issue with that statement, saying he found the comment “very surprising to have come from a spokesman for the prime minister.”
“But the prime minister and the Cabinet are grateful for the United States and the coalition partners,” Saleh, a pro-US Kurdish politician, told CNN’s “Late Edition.”
Saleh confirmed the Cabinet was discussing an amnesty offer and was deliberating how to give “people an opportunity to reintegrate within society” while at the same time “remaining firm against people who have committed atrocities and have committed crimes against the people of Iraq.”
— Additional input from agencies
