U.S. Attacks Targets In Iraq
U.S. Attacks Targets In Iraq
Associated Press
December 21, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. jet bombed a suspected insurgent target in central Iraq on Tuesday, as gunmen assassinated an Iraqi nuclear scientist north of Baghdad and a pipeline fire cut oil exports to Turkey.
Elsewhere, five American soldiers and an Iraqi civilian were wounded when the Humvee they were traveling in was hit by a car bomb near Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
The bloodshed came a day after Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi blamed the upsurge of violence on a campaign by insurgents to foment sectarian civil war as well as derail legislative elections set for Jan. 30.
Allawi said the mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents, blamed for Sunday's bombings in the Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, want to "create ethnic and religious tensions, problems and conflicts ... to destroy the unity of this country."
The coordinated bombings killed 67 people and injured almost 200 in one of the bloodiest attacks on civilians this year.
Early Tuesday, a U.S. aircraft engaged an "enemy position" with precision-guided missiles west of Baghdad, the military said.
Hamdi Al-Alosi, a doctor in a hospital in the city of Hit, said four people were killed and seven injured in the strike. He said the attack caused damage to several cars and two buildings.
The U.S. military spokesman could not confirm the casualties.
In Baqouba, a city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, unidentified assailants shot dead an Iraqi nuclear scientist as he was on his way to work, witnesses said.
Taleb Ibrahim al-Daher, a professor at Diyala University, was killed as he drove over a bridge on the Khrisan river. His car swerved and plummeted into the water.
And in northern Iraq, insurgents set ablaze a major pipeline used to ship oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, a principal export route for Iraqi oil, an official with the North Oil CO. said Tuesday.
Firefighters were on the scene, 70 miles southwest of Kirkuk, trying to extinguish the fire.
Insurgents have often targeted Iraq's oil infrastructure, repeatedly cutting exports and denying the country much-needed reconstruction money.
On Monday, thousands of mourners turned out for funerals in Najaf and Karbala for the victims of the car bombing attacks.
"These attacks are designed to stop the political process from taking place in Iraq," Allawi said. He added that his administration would not be deterred despite expecting more strikes before the Jan. 30 elections - the first free vote in Iraq since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958.
The worst attack on Shiite Muslims came on March 2 when at the start of the mourning period, Ashoura, simultaneous explosions ripped through crowds of worshippers at shrines in Baghdad and Karbala, killing 181.
Shiite Muslims, who make up around 60 percent of Iraq's people, have been strong supporters of the electoral process, which they expect to reverse the longtime domination of Iraq's Sunni minority. The insurgency is believed to draw most of its support from Sunnis, who provided much of Saddam Hussein's former Baath Party leadership.
Shiite officials and clerics blamed Sunni militants for Sunday's bombings. The strikes appeared designed to cause heavy casualties, and provoke reprisals by Shiites.
In Washington, President Bush agreed Monday that violence remains a significant problem in Iraq and said U.S.-trained Iraqi troops are not ready to take over security duties. He also cautioned that the election is only the beginning of a long process toward democracy.
"I certainly don't expect the process to be trouble-free," he said at a news conference.
And in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan strongly condemned Sunday's violence and called on Iraqis "to come together in a spirit of national reconciliation," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
"No cause can justify the killings of innocent civilians and the cold-blooded murder of election workers," Eckhard said.
Ellie