- BAGHDAD (AFP) -- Iraqi insurgents
killed at least 14 people in urban bombings on Saturday, while families
hid in their homes or fled to the desert to escape heavy fighting between
US troops and rebels near the Syrian border.
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- A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle packed with explosives
into a police convoy in central Baghdad, killing four people and wounding
10, the interior ministry said.
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- "I was riding in one of the cars in the convoy when
a car overtook us and exploded against the leading patrol car," policeman
Mustafa Rasul told AFP.
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- Five Iraqis were also killed when a suicide bomber drove
a motorbike at a joint US-Iraqi convoy on the road between Tuz Kharmatu
and Sulayman Beg, south of the northern oil centre of Kirkuk, Lieutenant
Colonel Mohammed Wali told AFP.
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- Earlier, three civilians believed to be street cleaners
were killed and four others wounded by a roadside bomb in Baghdad's southern
district of Dura, hospital officials said.
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- In the main northern city of Mosul, two civilians died
and a policeman was hurt in a suicide bombing targeting a joint Iraqi-US
patrol, said Major Mohammed Fathi.
-
- Meanwhile, US marines said they had lost nine men in
a week-old sweep for insurgents in the west of the country, their largest
operation since a spectacular assault on the rebel enclave of Fallujah
last November.
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- At least 14 more troops were wounded when an amphibious
assault vehicle hit a bomb on Wednesday in Al-Qaim, near the border, believed
to be the insurgents' local base.
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- The deaths brought US losses for the week to 25, making
it one of the deadliest periods for US troops in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.
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- "Operation Matador" was launched on May 7 near
the Syrian border. US commanders say insurgents get much of their weaponry
and foreign volunteers by way of Syria, an accusation denied by Damascus.
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- The region was described as a stronghold of Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, the Al-Qaeda leader who has claimed some of the bloodiest attacks
in Iraq.
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- An Iraqi defence official said Saturday that US forces
had surrounded Al-Qaim, while the US military said that fighting inside
the town was down to clashes between rival local groups.
-
- "Mortar and rocket fire, along with machine-gun
and small arms fire, is routine between the insurgents," according
to a military statement which gave no further explanation.
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- The Iraqi Red Crescent said it was distributing supplies
to families who had fled the fighting, including about 350 families who
escaped from Al-Qaim into the desert.
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- On the Syrian side of the border, residents said tensions
were rising, with an increased troop presence and the nightly roar of US
warplanes.
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- Meanwhile, the Iraq interior ministry said it had arrested
several suspects, including four Palestinians, in connection with a suicide
car bombing that killed 15 in central Baghdad on Thursday.
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- The arrests took place "nine hours after the attack",
according to a ministry statement, which said that "the criminals
clearly admitted their involvement in the attack."
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- Iraqi and US officials have repeatedly trumpeted the
arrest of bombing suspects, but this was one of the first times they appeared
to have had such rapid success.
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- Another 60 suspects were arrested during a 10-hour sweep
that turned up large quantities of weapons and ammunition in Mokdadiya,
about 100 kilometres north of Baghdad, said Iraqi army Colonel Dhia Ismail.
-
- In further unrest Saturday, three Iraqi soldiers were
shot dead when their position in Haswah, 80 kilometres south of Baghdad,
came under attack.
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- North of the capital, gunmen killed an Iraqi civilian
working as a translator with the US military in the rebel bastion of Samarra.
The body of another Iraqi contractor shot several times in the head was
discovered further south, security sources said.
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- Meanwhile, the brother of a Jordanian furniture seller
taken hostage in Baghdad last month pleaded with his captors to free him
and called on Amman to help secure his release.
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- Samir Rajab al-Suqi was abducted by six gunmen near his
Midas furniture store, according to Iraqi police.
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