BAGHDAD, 21 October 2005 — Eight people, among them a schoolgirl, were killed in attacks in Iraq yesterday, including a suicide car bombing targeting a US military convoy.
Four civilians were killed and 14 injured in the suicide attack on the US patrol in the restive town of Baquba north of Baghdad, an Iraqi security source said.
Shortly afterwards another suicide bomber rammed his car into a security checkpoint north of Baquba, killing a soldier and wounding three others, police said.
In Baghdad, three people, including a schoolgirl, were killed and four others wounded by a rocket that hit a primary school in the western Mansur neighborhood, a security source said.
“A Katyusha-like rocket slammed into the roof of the school, killing two guards and a little girl and wounding four students who were taken to hospital,” the source said.
Streets around the school were blocked off and journalists were not allowed near the school, an AFP photograher said.
The surge in attacks breaks a relative calm that accompanied the historic Iraqi referendum on a new constitution Saturday.
Four US soldiers were killed in attacks on Wednesday and a fifth died from a “non-hostile gunshot wound” on Tuesday the US military said.
The latest deaths brought to 1,981 the number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the US-led invasion of March 2003, according to an AFP tally based on Pentagon figures.
Since the referendum, 12 US military personnel have been killed in attacks.
Senior Qaeda Leader Killed in Iraq
US forces killed 12 militants in western Iraq including an Al-Qaeda leader responsible for attacks around Ramadi, a focus of the Sunni Arab insurgency, the US military said yesterday.
A statement said Saad Ali Firas Muntar Al-Dulaimi, also known as Abu Abdullah, was among 12 people killed in a series of Oct. 15 raids on suspected insurgents in Ramadi, about 110 km west of Baghdad.
The statement said Dulaimi was “highly regarded” by top Al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq including the group’s chief, Jordanian Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.
“(Dulaimi) was chiefly responsible for planning and executing all terrorist attacks on Iraqi and Coalition forces in the Ramadi and Falluja areas,” the statement said.
Ramadi and Falluja in western Anbar province are both bastions of Sunni Arab insurgents who have waged a bloody campaign of bombings, murders and kidnappings against the US— backed Baghdad government.
US forces have conducted a series of operations against insurgents around the two cities and areas to the west over the past three weeks to try to impose security ahead of last Saturday’s constitutional referendum in Iraq.
