Six mortar rounds fell on National Guard
offices in an early morning attack in Mashahidan, 25 miles north of Baghdad,
said Iraqi police and National Guard officers under condition of anonymity.
There was no breakdown on the number of those killed and
injured. The Iraqi National Guard has been a target of insurgents trying to
undermine U.S.-led security efforts ahead of November national elections.
In Ramadi, U.S. troops clashed with militants in the city's
center with fierce fighting taking place near City Hall, witnesses said Tuesday.
A Humvee was damaged when it was hit by a homemade bomb and
rocket fire, according to witness Hatif Mahmoud. It was uncertain whether there
were any U.S. casualties.
In nearby Fallujah, the U.S. command said it destroyed
several weapons storage sites and safehouses of terror mastermind Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi late Monday in the militant bastion Fallujah.
The operations in Ramadi and Fallujah were part of a stepped
up campaign to curb Sunni Muslim extremists before January's national elections
and bring the volatile region west of the capital under government control.
Residents of Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, said fighting
raged near the city hall and a Humvee was ablaze. There were no reports of
casualties.
In Baghdad, the U.S. command said the late night attacks in
Fallujah occurred around midnight but did not specify whether they were
airstrikes.
"Multiple secondary explosions indicate a significant amount
of explosives or ammunition inside the houses," the statement said.
It said recent attacks had forced leadership changes in
al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad movement and the strikes late Monday targeted
possible replacement leaders. Tawhid and Jihad has claimed responsibility for
many car bombings and the beheading of hostages.
The strikes came shortly after Fallujah's chief negotiator,
Sheik Khaled al-Jumeili, ruled out any quick resumption of talks to find a
peaceful solution to the standoff in Fallujah, 40 miles west of Baghdad.
In northern Iraq, saboteurs attacked and set on fire a key
oil pipeline that connects the Beiji oil refinery with Turkey, police said
Tuesday.
The pipeline was hit with explosives late Monday, said a
Beiji police officer on condition of anonymity. The attack happened about eight
miles from the refinery. Beiji is 155 miles north of Baghdad.
An official at the state-run Northern Oil Company also
confirmed the attack but did not give details.
Iraq's oil industry, which provides desperately needed money
for Iraq's reconstruction efforts, has been the target of repeated attacks by
insurgents in recent months.
Meanwhile, a 1st Infantry Division Soldier died from a
non-combat injury at a base in Diyala province, the U.S. military said Tuesday.
The soldier was found at late Sunday in his living quarters
after he did not return to his guard post. The incident is under investigation.
The name of the soldier is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Tuesday that
Britain needs to redeploy troops closer to Baghdad so that the insurgency in
central Iraq can be dealt with ahead of Iraqi elections.
The government is considering a U.S. request for a small
number of British troops to be moved nearer the Iraqi capital to free up
American forces for anti-insurgency operations.
Straw said a final decision depended on advice from U.K.
military commanders on the ground. Most British troops in Iraq are in the
relatively peaceful south of the country, whereas the American sector is far
more volatile.
"The security situation in part of the country is very
serious, it is of critical importance that the insurgency is dealt with," Straw
told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.
"Otherwise ... the elections would be flawed and that is why
it is necessary for us to make an additional effort."
Britain hasn't said how many troops might be redeployed, or
where precisely they would go to. But military sources have said that if the
request was granted, Britain's reserve regiment, the 650-strong First Battalion
Black Watch, which is stationed near the southern port city of Basra, would be
the obvious choice.
In a response to violence, Australia's government said
Tuesday that it was moving its embassy in Baghdad into the strife-torn city's
heavily fortified Green Zone.
The announcement came less than two days after a car bomb
blast close to the Australian embassy in the fashionable Jadiriyah district
killed six people late Sunday. No Australians were hurt in the blast, which
authorities believe was aimed at an Iraqi police convoy.
The Department of Foreign Affairs briefly confirmed a media
report of the move on Tuesday, saying the embassy would be moved in the first
half of next year.
Australia has 920 troops in and around Iraq and sent 2,000
to take part in last year's U.S.-led invasion.
