BAGHDAD, 16 July 2004 — Iraq’s interim prime minister yesterday announced the formation of a new spy agency to tackle insurgency, hours after a car bomb killed 10 people.
Iyad Allawi said he was creating the General Security Directorate, a domestic intelligence agency, which he hoped would infiltrate and expose those behind an insurgency that has raged since US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein last year.
The announcement came after 10 people were killed and 40 wounded when a car bomb exploded near the main police station in Haditha, 200 km northwest of Baghdad.
The blast came a day after a suicide car bomb in Baghdad killed 11 people and the governor of the northern city of Mosul was assassinated.
Meanwhile, a Filipino held hostage in Iraq told his family in a videotaped message he would be returning home but his captors said they would free him only after Manila withdraws all its troops this month.
Addressing his family, Angelo dela Cruz said: “Wait for me, I’m coming back to you.”
In the videotape played by Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera, dela Cruz, sporting a short beard, wore civilian clothes and appeared in good health unlike on previous tapes in which he was wearing an orange jumpsuit typical of US jails and associated around the world with images of Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay.
“He sent a message of thanks to the Philippine president (Gloria Arroyo) for the decision to withdraw forces from Iraq and called on the Philippines to stick to its decision and carry it out,” it added.
But in another message, the group said it would only release dela Cruz once all Philippine troops had left Iraq by July 31. That is an extension from its previous July 20 deadline. Manila has said it will pull them out “as soon as possible”, but the Philippine military was still awaiting orders yesterday.
The kidnappers’ demand has left Arroyo walking a tightrope between demands at home to save dela Cruz’s life and the wish to please Washington.
The White House scolded the Philippines, saying the move sent “the wrong signal” to terrorists. “You cannot negotiate” with terrorists, spokesman Scott McClellan said, confirming that “we understand that they have made the decision to withdraw their 51 troops ahead of schedule.”
Allawi also urged Arroyo not to give in to the kidnappers.
In Baghdad, a US military spokeswoman said a headless corpse dressed in an orange jumpsuit had been found in the Tigris River, but not yet identified. She said it was not known whether the body was that of a Bulgarian hostage killed by his captors earlier this week. A deadline for the threatened execution of a second Bulgarian hostage passed Wednesday night without news.
The body was found near Baiji, 180 km north of Baghdad, on Wednesday night.
In another development, saboteurs blasted a crude oil pipeline that feeds into a main export artery in northern Iraq, halting exports to Turkey.
— Additional input from agencies
