BAGHDAD, 18 July 2004 — Insurgents yesterday targeted Iraq’s justice minister on the 36th anniversary of the coup that brought the Baath party to power. Malik Dohan Al-Hassan was not injured, but four of his bodyguards were killed and seven other people injured when the tail-end of his convoy was hit by a car bomb in Baghdad.
The blast ripped through an intersection 500 meters from Hassan’s home.
“A car was parked on the opposite side of the road, when the driver, God curse him, saw us and exploded himself,” said Loae Hassan, one of his bodyguards.
The blast that struck the minister’s convoy carved a crater two meters in diameter and half meter deep into the pavement. Flames lapped the charred skeleton of one car stopped alongside a pylon supporting a bridge. Emergency personnel struggled to load a limp body into the back of an ambulance and then sped off, bouncing up on a curb to avoid a police vehicle parked in the middle of the road. A helicopter hovered overhead.
Hassan, the bodyguard, said that several members of the minister’s security detail were killed in the blast that completely destroyed three vehicles in the convoy. Among the dead was the minister’s nephew.
Though Hassan’s bodyguards initially said five people had died, the Health Ministry put the number at four.
A seasoned lawyer and politician, Hassan assumed a high profile earlier this month with the unveiling of a new national security law giving the government emergency powers in its battle against the 15-month-old insurgency.
He is also one of the key players in the process of trying deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and 11 of his lieutenants, after their first appearance in the dock on July 1.
Shortly afterward, insurgents threw a hand grenade at a police patrol in the same neighborhood, badly injuring two police officers, said police Maj. Hashim Raed.
Also yesterday, a roadside bomb detonated near a police vehicle in the western Baghdad district of Hay Al-Jameia, wounded four officers, police Lt. Alaa Adnan said.
South of the capital, another car bomb exploded outside the Iraqi National Guard headquarters in Mahmudiyah, 30 km from Baghdad, killing two people and wounding 47 others, hospital officials said.
Statements posted on a website said both the attack on Hassan and the one in Mahmudiyah were carried out by the military wing of Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi’s Tawhid wal Jihad group, blamed by Washington for a series of deadly suicide bombings in Iraq and for executing at least three hostages.
“If you escaped our arrow this time, we have more arrows that you and your group will not escape,” the statement said, referring to Hassan.
Suicide bombings, shootings and car bombs have rocked the country since the transfer of sovereignty from US occupation authority to the interim Iraqi government on June 28.
Insurgents have also kidnapped dozens of foreigners in hopes of pressuring countries taking part in the US-led coalition to withdraw. The strategy also appears intended to further isolate the United States, which already provides the bulk of the 160,000-member multinational force in Iraq.
The Philippines withdrew 11 more soldiers from Iraq on Friday to meet the demands of kidnappers holding a truck driver hostage, ignoring warnings from the United States that the move sends the wrong signal to terrorists.
In Manila, presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said in a newspaper column it could take time to secure dela Cruz’s release. “We admire Angelo for his sacrifice and courage and we all want him home but it may take time,” Bunye said.
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo had faced overwhelming pressure from the public at home, where many have family members working abroad. More than 7 million Filipinos work overseas. People lit candles and held prayer vigils Friday for the safe return of dela Cruz.
Despite the ferocity and number of attacks in recent days, most coalition countries said this week they are standing firm.
El Salvador’s legislature approved an extension late Thursday of its 380 troops in Iraq. Italy, whose contingent of 3,000 troops is the third-largest in Iraq, has no plans to pull out. Neither does Poland, with 2,500 soldiers; Romania, with 730 infantry and military police; Denmark, with 500 troops; Hungary, with 300; nor the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with about 100 each.
Bulgaria, which has 480 troops in Iraq, was working desperately to win the freedom of a captive Bulgarian truck driver after another driver was killed this week. It reiterated its determination Friday to remain in Iraq, despite calls by lawmakers and other groups to pull out.
— Additional input from agencies
