Iraqi oil official, 23 others killed
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-20 07:46

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed an Oil Ministry official on Thursday and escalating violence claimed at least 24 more lives, fueling fears Iraq may be moving toward civil war.

The oil official, Ali Hameed, was shot outside his home, police said. Insurgents have assassinated dozens of government officials in Baghdad over the past two years.

Iraqi police march during a graduation ceremony in the southern Iraq town of Samawa May 19, 2005. British and Australian instructors were in charge of training the police cadets, who will join an increasing number of Iraqi security officers on the street. [Reuters]

Mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents have stepped up attacks on officials and security forces since a Shi'ite-led government was announced last month. They have killed more than 500 people in a campaign that has challenged government promises of stability.

In the worst violence on Thursday, eight people were killed in the northern city of Mosul after insurgents attacked the house of a local Sunni Muslim politician, witnesses and hospital officials said.

The politician, Fawwaz al-Jarba, said his driver and three guards were among the dead. He said U.S. troops responded to his request for help. Witnesses said the deaths were caused by clashes between U.S. troops and the insurgents.

Jarba is distrusted by some Sunni Arabs because he won election to parliament as a member of a Shi'ite-dominated coalition.

In Baghdad, a car bomb near a Shi'ite Muslim mosque killed at least two people and wounded five, police said.

A university professor was shot dead, an Iraqi soldier was killed in a suicide bombing, and four others were kidnapped.

Gunmen opened fire on a U.S. convoy, and two soldiers later died from wounds suffered in the attack, the military said. A roadside bomb also killed an American soldier in the capital, the military said.

The escalation in violence has raised concerns the country could erupt into a full-scale civil war. Discoveries of people killed execution-style have stirred sectarian passions.

More than 50 bodies have been found since Saturday. Most victims were Shi'ite Muslims but some were Sunnis.

Four more bodies were found on Thursday, near Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit. Police said they had been shot.

SECTARIAN TENSIONS

Top Sunni cleric Harith al-Dhari this week publicly accused the Badr Brigades, the militia of the main Shi'ite political party, of assassinating Sunni preachers, in a sign of worsening sectarian tensions.

It was the first time Dhari had publicly accused the armed wing of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which was part of the Shi'ite coalition that won a majority in parliament in Jan. 30 elections.

Dhari's Muslim Clerics Association called for a three-day closure of Sunni mosques in protest at the killings and said Sunnis would not keep silent.

The top Badr Brigades official has denied the accusations and said Sunnis and Shi'ites should avoid sectarian strife.

Shi'ite Arabs and Kurds, who dominate Iraq's parliament, have promised to give Sunni Arabs a key role in politics, even though the minority won only 17 of parliament's 275 seats.

Sunni Arabs were the most powerful group in Iraq during Saddam's rule, but largely stayed away from the elections and make up the backbone of the insurgency.

So far, most Shi'ites have heeded calls by moderate clerics to show restraint. But the recent explosion of violence has strained their patience.

In Mosul, hospital officials said two people were killed when a bomb exploded prematurely in their car during a suicide mission.

Police said a roadside bomb killed two policemen in Baquba, and a police officer and his father were shot dead in Samarra. In the province of Anbar, gunmen killed a local police chief.

In Iskandariya, just south of Baghdad, another roadside bomb killed a policeman and wounded three, police said.

SYRIA

Many of the deadliest attacks have been blamed on al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who called for suicide strikes against U.S. forces to be stepped up in an audiotape message attributed to him on Wednesday.

He also defended the killing of "innocent Muslims" in bombings, saying it was legitimate in a holy war.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, in a visit to Baghdad, said Syria must do more to help defeat the Iraqi insurgency.

"Syria needs to support the efforts to deal with insurgency threats in Iraq," Zoellick told reporters. He said Washington had "made it quite clear that we and others are watching how Syria behaves itself."

A U.S. administration official said on Wednesday that Syria was "a major disruptive force" and a corridor for foreign militants infiltrating Iraq.

"These are baseless accusations," a Syrian official said on Thursday. "Syria has been doing all that it can."

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