Spate of Violence Kills 8 Iraqis and Brit

Las Vegas Sun ^ | January 21, 2006 at 5:21:13 PST | ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A spate of bombings and shootings across Iraq killed at least eight Iraqis on Saturday, and Britain announced the death of a British security worker in a roadside blast.

The violence came a day after the announcement of uncertified final results from the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections, a step U.S. officials and many Iraqis hoped could help curb a rampant insurgency.

British security company contractor Stephen Enwright, 30, was killed Thursday in a roadside bomb in Iraq, The British Foreign Office said Saturday. The precise location of the attack was not provided.

A roadside bomb blast also wounded five bodyguards of President Jalal Talabani in northern Iraq, police said Saturday.

Talabani was not in the convoy when it was attacked late Friday near the town of Salman Beg, some 75 miles south of the northern city of Kirkuk, said police Col. Abbas Mohammed.

An Iraqi army major, his son and his bodyguard were killed in a brazen drive-by shooting Saturday as they headed to work, police Capt. Hakim al-Azawi said. A second son was wounded in the attack near Qadisiyah, 30 miles south of Saddam Hussein's hometown of the northern city of Tikrit.

Also Saturday, a car bomb exploded near the crowded Medina Market in Baghdad's eastern Shaab neighborhood, wounding four people, one critically, said police Lt. Nazim Nasser. One shop was destroyed by the blast.

A Saddam-era army major, Haider Mohammed, was shot dead standing outside his home in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, police Maj. Mohammed al-Hasnawi said.

Gunmen also killed three butchers standing on a street side in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, said police Capt. Firas Jiti.

An Iraqi civilian was killed and two were wounded in a roadside bomb blast apparently intended for passing Iraqi police, who escaped the attack unharmed 30 miles west of the southern city of Karbala, said police Capt. Qais al-Azawi.

Police also found the bullet-riddled bodies of Iraqi commando officer Ali Hussein in an open field and former Baath Party member Abdun Hamid in a playground near Karbala, al-Azawi said.