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US tank, Iraqi bus collide, killing 6
An Iraqi bus collided with a U.S. tank that was on patrol Friday, killing six of the bus passengers and injuring eight, the U.S. military said. The minibus carrying Iraqi passengers had moved into the lane for oncoming traffic to try to pass a slow vehicle, said Maj. Neal O'Brien, spokesman for the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division. The bus smashed into the front of the tank as the tank driver tried to veer out of the way, O'Brien said. The 1st Division tank crew, which had been on patrol in the city of Muqdadiyah north of Baghdad, stopped to try to treat the wounded, the spokesman said. Sunni Muslim militants, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for the assassination of a community leader who was working to get out the vote on behalf of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, and three American troops were killed in persistent violence ahead of this month's elections. The Sunni Muslim group of Ansar al-Islam said it targeted Sheik Mahmoud Finjan as a supporter of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and "as a big supporter of the elections." A separate ambush in Iraq's north killed three officials of a party representing Iraq's Kurds — like the Shiites, working aggressively for a high turnout in a vote expected to pry a large measure of power from Iraq's long-dominant Sunni minority. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, meanwhile, said conditions for the Jan. 30 national elections were "far from ideal" and Iraqi officials should intensify efforts to make the balloting inclusive. Finjan was one of many representatives of al-Sistani — Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric — working to get Iraq's suppressed Shiite Muslim majority to the polls. Finjan was shot to death Wednesday as he headed home after evening prayers in a mosque at the town of Salman Pak southeast of Baghdad. Attackers also killed Finjan's son and four bodyguards. The attacks were the latest blamed on Sunni extremists in what's expected to be an escalating campaign of violence aimed at intimidating would-be voters. "We ... call upon all brother citizens not to participate in the elections because we are going to attack voting centers," Ansar al-Islam said in the statement claiming responsibility, renewing Sunni extremist demands for a boycott of the balloting. The message was posted on a Web site used by insurgents. Established after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Ansar al-Islam is one of Iraq's older extremist groups — predating even the U.S. toppling of Saddam Hussein. The group has been linked to al-Qaida. One of its offshoots, Ansar al-Sunnah, has emerged in recent months as the deadliest homegrown Iraqi group. Attacks claimed by Ansar al-Sunnah include a December suicide bombing that killed 22 people, mostly Americans, at a U.S. military mess tent in the northern city of Mosul; the August executions of 12 Nepalese construction workers; and twin suicide bombings in February that killed 109 members of Iraq's assertive Kurd minority. Many Sunni Muslim leaders say Iraq remains too violent to allow for a free election and have urged its postponement. On Thursday night, gunmen killed an Iraqi election official in western Baghdad, police said, marking at least the seventh such killing ahead of the vote. Attackers in a passing car fired upon Abdul Karim Jassem Al-Ubeidi as he headed home, police Capt. Imad Thamir said.
Speaking to journalists at a conference in Mauritius, Annan said the participation of Sunni Arabs in the election was critical. "I have always made clear that the elections must be as inclusive as possible if they are to contribute positively to political transition in Iraq," the U.N. chief said. "It is clear that the vast majority of Iraqis are eager to exercise their democratic right to vote," Annan said. "But it is equally obvious that the conditions in which the election is being held are far from ideal." The U.S. military reported some of the latest violence Friday — the deaths of three U.S. troops in two provinces feared to be too violence-wracked for the vote. Two Marines of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force died in action Thursday in the western province of Anbar, the U.S. military said in a statement. And a 1st Infantry Division soldier died while supporting Task Force Olympia operations around the volatile northern city of Mosul the same day, the military said. American forces gave no details. Another Mosul attack Thursday saw gunmen ambush a car carrying officials of the Kurdish Democratic Party, killing three of them, another party official said. The Kurdish Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani is one of two main factions of Iraq's Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of the population. Iraq's Kurds and Shiites, who were dominated by the Sunnis since the Ottoman era, have been fervent supporters of the elections, which will seat a temporary government charged with writing a post-Saddam constitution and overseeing new balloting under it. Anbar and Mosul's province of Ninevah are two of four provinces conceded by U.S. ground force commander Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz to be potentially too dangerous for significant voter participation. The four, among 18 total provinces in Iraq, hold nearly a quarter of Iraq's 26 million people. In the north, police arrested four people Friday after finding machine guns and rockets packed into their car. The suspected insurgents were pulled over and searched on a road near the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, police Brig. Sarhat Qadir said in Kirkuk. |
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