Policeman Killed, U.S. Patrol Attacked in Iraq

Reuters ^ | 12/08/03 | Luke Baker

[TexKat]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi policeman was killed in a bomb blast near Baghdad and gunmen attacked a U.S. Army patrol in the northern city of Mosul Monday, the latest attacks on Iraq's occupiers and those seen as collaborating with them.

The policeman, a bomb disposal expert, was killed when a tank round planted on a busy street in the city of Baquba, 40 miles north of Baghdad, was detonated by remote control, a U.S. military commander in the city said.

Iraqi police and others seen to be working or cooperating with U.S. and allied authorities are increasingly the target of attacks by loyalists to the former regime. Last month 17 policemen were killed in twin bomb blasts in and near Baquba.

In Mosul, Iraq's third largest city and one that has grown steadily more restive in recent weeks, a U.S. soldier was wounded when his patrol came under small arms fire, a day after a colleague was killed and two were injured in a roadside blast.

"It was a drive-by shooting on a dismounted patrol," said Maj. Hugh Cate, spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division. "The soldiers returned fire but the suspects got away."

Mosul, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city, has seen a surge in blasts, shootings and killings in recent weeks, including a mortar bombardment on the headquarters of the 101st Airborne Division last month which killed one soldier.

Since Washington declared an end to major combat on May 1, 192 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action in Iraq. While the U.S. military says the overall number of attacks has declined following a recent offensive against guerrillas, November was still the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein was launched on March 20.

KOREANS QUIT IRAQ

Earlier Monday, a group of South Korean electrical workers left Baghdad for Jordan following the killing of two of their colleagues by guerrillas late last month. More than 40 contractors working for South Korea's Ohmu Electric Co Ltd on a project to rebuild Iraq's power infrastructure have left in the past two days, the latest blow to U.S.-led efforts to reconstruct the country.

In Baghdad, Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the president of the U.S.-backed Governing Council, said steps were being taken to set up war crimes tribunals to try former senior members of the regime for crimes against humanity.

"They will be in the hands of Iraqis, with an Iraqi criminal law. It's possible that there could be judges from abroad, the United Nations or other countries, as observers. These trials can be public, with representation by lawyers," he said.

"All of this can assure the justice and scrupulousness of the tribunals," Hakim, a cleric who heads Iraq's largest Shi'ite Muslim political movement in the country, told Reuters.

Many of those of who could face trial appear on the U.S. Army's 55 most-wanted list. The bulk of the 55 have already been detained, but number one on the list, Saddam Hussein, remains at large with a $25 million bounty on his head.

Lieutenant Colonel Steve Russell, the commander of the 1-22 Battalion, which is leading the hunt for Saddam around his hometown Tikrit, said a dwindling group of a few dozen diehard Saddamists was responsible for attacking U.S. troops.

In the latest piece of intelligence helping in the hunt, a U.S. military spokeswoman said soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division had raided the home of a suspected Saddam supporter in the town of Samarra, finding $1.9 million and fake ID cards.

[TexKat]

Soldiers of the U.S Army's 4th Infantry Division arrive at the scene of a blast in the town of Baquba, in central Iraq, December 8, 2003. An improvised explosive device in downtown Baquba killed at least one member of an Iraqi police bomb squad. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov