26 die in Baghdad attacks during US sweep
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-04 15:11

At least 26 people have been killed in two insergent attacks in Baghdad, raising fears that unrest will mar Iraq's January elections as the US military said it had rounded up over 200 insurgents in the so-called triangle of death south of the capital.

An Iraqi mourner cries over the coffin of a policeman outside al-Yarmuk hospital in Baghdad's western Al-Amel district. At least 12 Iraqi policemen were killed in an attack on a police station in Baghdad. [AFP]

The latest killings Friday, claimed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most wanted man, and his Al-Qaeda-allied group, made for the deadliest day in the capital since September 30 and came a day after US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted he had underestimated the Iraqi insurgency.

At least 12 policemen were killed in a commando-style raid on the police station in the Al-Amel neighborhood, medics said, while at least another 14 people died in a suicide car bombing in the northern district of Al-Adhamiya.

One police officer said about 60 men pulled up in cars, minibuses and taxis, circled the building and opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

The suicide bombing two hours later in the Sunni Muslim district of Al-Adhamiya, near a Shiite mosque, killed 14 people and wounded 19, and caused extensive material damage, an interior ministry source said.

Interior ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhem said the police station attack was "part of a strategy of increasing terrorist attacks in order to prevent general elections being held."

As efforts to stabilise the country ahead of the landmark January 30 elections continued, the US military announced the end of a nine-day offensive launched in the "triangle of death" rebel area south of Baghdad, saying 200 insurgents had been rounded up.

The operation to reclaim control of the area, which earned its nickname from the assassinations, ambushes and kidnappings carried out there, followed on from the assault on the western city of Fallujah that was launched on November 8.

The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force said it had rounded up 204 suspected militants and discovered 11 arms caches during the operation, causing "serious damage to insurgent activity".

Marines were particularly pleased with the role played by Iraqi national guards, who led several operations during the sweep, despite "a concerted campaign of intimidation and terror that has cost dozens of national guards their lives".

And despite domestic opposition to British troops' involvement in the operation after they were moved north from the relative calm of the southern city of Basra for the operation, more British troops looked set to be sent to Iraq ahead of elections.

"It is very likely we are going to see extra British soldiers sent to Iraq over the elections period," Charles Heyman, chief analyst at Britain's authoritative Jane's Defence Weekly, told AFP.

"When US forces are under pressure again, they are going to go straight to the UK and say we want your people as quickly as possible, and the UK will almost certainly deliver," he said.

The Pentagon already announced this week that it is extending tours of duty in Iraq for 10,400 combat troops through Iraq's January elections, boosting its forces to their highest post-invasion levels.

However, legislators in US-led coalition member Ukraine voted 257 out of 397 present in the 450-member chamber to withdraw their 1,600 troops from Iraq, as their own country continues to be engulfed in political chaos.

Visiting Baghdad on Friday, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stressed the importance of holding elections as planned, "to see people taking their fate into their own hands."

The alliance has a military training centre in the country, which hopes to train 1,000 Iraqi officers a year.

In northern Iraq, six people were killed in Mosul, the country's third-largest city. Five of them died when mortar rounds, followed by automatic arms fire, targeted the provincial government offices there.

The US military said it had killed an estimated 22 insurgents in the city after one of their patrols came under attack Friday.

Two US soldiers were killed in two separate convoy attacks near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and in Baghdad, the military said.

On the diplomatic circuit, Prime Minister Iyad Allawi extracted German promises to step up efforts to rebuild his battered nation as Germany thwarted an alleged plan to attack him by arresting three Islamic extremists.

Allawi began his latest European tour by meeting German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer to discuss sorely needed investment for Iraq.

Interim President Ghazi al-Yawar left for Washington, where he is scheduled to meet US President George W. Bush on Monday to discuss security and the January 30 elections.

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