Iraq Violence
Spreads To 'Safe' Areas
By Rory McCarthy
& Brian Whitaker
18 January, 2005
The
Guardian
Insurgents
in Iraq intent on derailing elections due in less than two weeks stepped
up a campaign of violence across the country yesterday, claiming dozens
more lives in shootings and car bombings.
A campaign of assassinations
has claimed victims from north to south Iraq. Gunmen are now setting
up their own checkpoints on most roads leading out of Baghdad.
Yesterday a suicide
car bomber drove into the police headquarters in the oil refining town
of Baiji, 100 miles north of Baghdad, and killed at least 10 people
in the blast. About 30 more people were injured, and witnesses described
seeing several burned corpses lying on the ground in the police compound.
Another eight Iraqis,
all national guardsmen, were shot dead in an attack on their checkpoint
outside a provincial broadcasting centre in Buhriz, near Baquba, also
north of Baghdad. Later a militant group apparently led by the Jordanian
militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility.
Six bodies were
found in the western city of Ramad with notes attached to them describing
them as collaborators. "The fate of every agent will be slaughter,"
one of the notes said.
The Catholic archbishop
of Mosul was kidnapped at gunpoint yesterday. Archbishop Basile Georges
Casmoussa, 66, of the Syrian Catholic church was seized by gunmen outside
his church.
The number of attacks
across the country now averages 80 a day, the same level as last spring
when the US occupation was facing its greatest challenge, trying to
head off armed uprisings in Sunni and Shia areas.
There is also a
growing number of incidents south of Baghdad, even in previously quiet
areas. Gunmen opened fire on a polling station in Musayib, 50 miles
south of the capital. At least one guard and one insurgent were killed.
In the southern
port city of Basra, mortars were fired at three schools that have been
designated as voting centres. No one was injured but the schools were
badly damaged. An additional 650 British troops from the Royal Highland
Fusiliers arrived in the city on Sunday to boost security.
In the southern
town of Numaniya, near Kut, gunmen shot dead the son of Habib Salman
al-Katib, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the leading
Shia clerical authority in Iraq. Several of his aides have been assassinated
in recent days.
There have been
other recent killings near Kut, once a peaceful Shia town, with several
accounts of gunmen shooting drivers dead at checkpoints. At least 17
people died around the town in attacks on Sunday, including Iraqi policemen,
national guardsmen, local government officials and Iraqis working for
foreign companies involved in reconstruction projects.
Salama al-Khafaji,
a high-profile moderate Shia politician, survived an ambush in Baghdad
on Sunday - the second attempt on her life in the past year. Yesterday
she cancelled plans for an election campaign tour through the south.
Iraqi officials
have tried not to publicise the location of polling stations for fear
of attacks. But the secrecy surrounding the election often goes much
further. Although there are more than 100 political parties and coalitions
taking part, few have given the names of candidates.
A security clampdown
will be enforced in the days leading up to the election.
Yesterday the most
senior American commander in Iraq, General George Casey, accepted it
was likely to be a violent polling day. "The enemy we're fighting
is not 10ft tall, but he's resourceful and persistent. Is there going
to be violence on election day? There is."
Iraqi exiles in
14 countries began registering yesterday to take part in the election.
Estimates of the number of expatriates entitled to vote range from one
million to four million. Britain, with an estimated 150,000 eligible
voters, has three centres, in London, Manchester and Glasgow.
© Guardian
Newspapers Limited 2005