BAGHDAD, 6 December 2004 — Seventeen civilians were killed and 13 wounded in Tikrit yesterday as gunmen ambushed a bus full of Iraqis working for the US military, while a car bomb and a gun attack killed four members of the Iraqi security forces elsewhere in northern Iraq.
The violence was the latest in a string of deadly attacks targeting Iraqi forces and others allied with the US military that have killed at least 68 Iraqis since Friday. The surge in bloodshed has come despite major US offensives last month to suppress guerrillas ahead of elections set for Jan. 30.
UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned that credible elections cannot be held Jan. 30 under current conditions. About 40 small, mostly Sunni political parties met yesterday to demand the elections be postponed by six months, but stopped short of calling for a boycott. The gunmen opened fire from two cars at the bus as it dropped off Iraqis employed by coalition forces at a weapons dump in Tikrit, 130 kilometers north of Baghdad, said Capt. Bill Coppernoll, spokesman for the Tikrit-based US 1st Infantry Division.
Coppernoll said 17 people were killed in the attack, which occurred at about 8:30 a.m. Survivors reported that the seven gunmen emptied their clips with a spray of gunfire into the bus, then fled.
About an hour later, a suicide car bomber drove into an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint in Baiji, about 120 kilometers to the north, detonating his explosives-packed vehicle before gunmen opened fire on the position, killing three guardsmen, including one company commander, and wounding 18.
Guerrillas also attacked patrolling guardsmen near Samarra, 95 kilometers north of Baghdad, killing one and wounding four.
A joint-patrol between Iraqi National Guard forces and coalition troops was ambushed by gunmen in Latifiyah, south of Baghdad, resulting in one Iraqi soldier being killed and another six wounded, according to ING company commander Col. Salam Trak.
Insurgents have routinely targeted Iraqis employed by the US-led coalition and Iraqi security forces, accusing them of collaborating with the US-led occupation forces. The attacks have also taken on a new impetus in the runup to Jan. 30 elections as insurgents attempt to derail the ballot.
The US commander in Iraq, Gen. John Abizaid, acknowledged that the insurgency is proving a tough task for the country’s fledgling security forces, which he said were not yet up to the task of ensuring secure elections, requiring the planned increase in US troops from 138,000 to 150,000.
“This means a council will emerge that does not represent all and thus will lack legitimacy,” the leaders said in a statement. Their call echoed concerns expressed previously by Iraq’s most influential Sunni politicians that the raging insurgency has made huge areas of the country too dangerous for the polls.
Insurgents also kept up attacks against American troops. Two US soldiers were killed by roadside bombs in Baghdad and near Baqubah on Saturday, and another two were killed in Mosul.
— Additional input from agencies
