Suicide bombers kill 20 Iraqi security personnel

BAGHDAD – Suicide bombers killed 20 members of Iraq’s fledgling security forces near a US marine base west of Baghdad and at a checkpoint north of the capital on Saturday in a spate of guerrilla attacks across the country.

The surge in violence underlined the scale of the task facing the US military and Iraq’s interim government, which have sworn to crush the guerrillas before elections in January. Hospital officials said 16 Iraqi police were killed and up to 40 people were wounded when a suicide bomber struck an Iraqi police post near the marine base.Another suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a checkpoint manned by Iraqi National Guards in the village of Ishaqi, close to the town of Samarra, north of Baghdad, killing four guards.A policeman was killed by a roadside bomb in Samarra.There was no let up in violence elsewhere across the Sunni Arab heartland of central Iraq that the interim government and Washington blame on Saddam Hussein supporters and foreign Islamic militants.Guerrillas killed two Turkish truckers and wounded two in an attack on a convoy near the northern city of Mosul, police said.In central Baghdad guerrillas fired two mortar rounds, killing two civilians and wounding one, witnesses said.Six US soldiers were wounded when their armoured vehicle was hit by a bomb on a highway leading to Baghdad airport.Saboteurs bombed two oil pipelines transporting crude from northern and eastern Iraq to Baghdad’s Dora refinery.Neither pipeline carries oil for export.The US military said it had captured a lieutenant of its top foe in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and five other suspects in an overnight raid on what it said was a hideout of the Jordanian militant’s network in the south of Fallujah.US forces also launched a new air strike on the rebel-held militant stronghold city, about 50 km west of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding three.US military did not name the man or give his nationality, but said he had once been viewed as a minor member of Zarqawi’s militant Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Holy war) group.”However, due to a surge in the number of Zarqawi associates who have been captured or killed by (US) strikes and other operations, the member had moved up to take a critical position as a Zarqawi senior leader,” the military said in a statement.It said Fallujah was a shrinking haven for Zarqawi’s group, widely blamed for some of Iraq’s bloodiest violence.”Zarqawi followers are starting to move to outlying areas of Fallujah in a continuing attempt to hide amidst the civilian population of Fallujah due to precision strikes against Zarqawi hideouts and fighting positions,” the military said.Residents of Fallujah deny knowledge of Zarqawi’s militants and say frequent US air strikes inflict a heavy civilian toll.Tawhid wal Jihad has declared loyalty to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda and has claimed responsibility for beheading several foreign hostages.It has not said it is holding Margaret Hassan, who was abducted on Tuesday on her way to work at the aid agency Care International, whose operations she headed in Baghdad.- Nampa-ReutersHospital officials said 16 Iraqi police were killed and up to 40 people were wounded when a suicide bomber struck an Iraqi police post near the marine base.Another suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a checkpoint manned by Iraqi National Guards in the village of Ishaqi, close to the town of Samarra, north of Baghdad, killing four guards.A policeman was killed by a roadside bomb in Samarra.There was no let up in violence elsewhere across the Sunni Arab heartland of central Iraq that the interim government and Washington blame on Saddam Hussein supporters and foreign Islamic militants.Guerrillas killed two Turkish truckers and wounded two in an attack on a convoy near the northern city of Mosul, police said.In central Baghdad guerrillas fired two mortar rounds, killing two civilians and wounding one, witnesses said.Six US soldiers were wounded when their armoured vehicle was hit by a bomb on a highway leading to Baghdad airport.Saboteurs bombed two oil pipelines transporting crude from northern and eastern Iraq to Baghdad’s Dora refinery.Neither pipeline carries oil for export.The US military said it had captured a lieutenant of its top foe in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and five other suspects in an overnight raid on what it said was a hideout of the Jordanian militant’s network in the south of Fallujah.US forces also launched a new air strike on the rebel-held militant stronghold city, about 50 km west of Baghdad, killing two people and wounding three.US military did not name the man or give his nationality, but said he had once been viewed as a minor member of Zarqawi’s militant Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Holy war) group.”However, due to a surge in the number of Zarqawi associates who have been captured or killed by (US) strikes and other operations, the member had moved up to take a critical position as a Zarqawi senior leader,” the military said in a statement.It said Fallujah was a shrinking haven for Zarqawi’s group, widely blamed for some of Iraq’s bloodiest violence.”Zarqawi followers are starting to move to outlying areas of Fallujah in a continuing attempt to hide amidst the civilian population of Fallujah due to precision strikes against Zarqawi hideouts and fighting positions,” the military said.Residents of Fallujah deny knowledge of Zarqawi’s militants and say frequent US air strikes inflict a heavy civilian toll.Tawhid wal Jihad has declared loyalty to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda and has claimed responsibility for beheading several foreign hostages.It has not said it is holding Margaret Hassan, who was abducted on Tuesday on her way to work at the aid agency Care International, whose operations she headed in Baghdad.- Nampa-Reuters