Seventeen Kurdish militiamen killed in Iraq suicide car bombing

MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - At least 17 Kurdish militiamen were killed in a suicide car bombing in the northern city of Mosul, exacerbating fears that a riding tide of violence could derail Iraq's January elections.

The attack came hours after a double car bombing in Baghdad killed at least four policemen and wounded 49 others and as 13 other Iraqis were reported killed in a wave of attacks across the country.

The PUK chief in Mosul, Saad Pira, told AFP 17 peshmergas were killed and more than 40 wounded when a suicide car bomber rammed their convoy at around 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) as they were travelling through the Karama neighborhood of Mosul.

"An Opel car slammed into the convoy and exploded against the minibuses, two of which were totally gutted by fire," he said. The attack took place near the PUK headquarters in Karama.

The Al-Qaeda group of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqaqi claimed responsibility for the attack in an Internet statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.

"A lion of the Martyrs' Brigade attacked a convoy of the Kurdish Workers Party, killing more than 50 apostates," it said.

Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, is rife with ethnic tension between its Kurdish and Arab communities. After Iraqi president Saddam Hussein fell from power in 2003, Kurdish political parties set up offices there, guarded by peshmergas.

In Baghdad, at least four policemen were killed and 49 others wounded in a double car bombing, medics said, a day after 26 people were killed in twin attacks claimed by militants loyal to Zarqawi, Iraq's most-wanted man.

Two cars were detonated simultaneously, ripping through the Salhiyah police station just outside the main entrance to the heavily fortified "Green Zone" -- home to embassies and Iraqi government offices, the US military said.

The facade of the station was blown off. Around 10 civilian cars were strewn, gutted in the street, while another was blown onto the roof of a neighbouring two-storey building.

The attacks were the latest in a line of strikes against Iraq's US-backed security forces who have become prime targets for insurgents seeking to destabilise the country ahead of elections set for January 30.

Meanwhile, four multinational soldiers have been killed since late Friday, the US military said. Two US soldiers were killed in separate roadside bomb attacks in Baghdad and the rebel hotspot of Baquba.

Two multinational force soldiers were killed and five wounded in a car bombing at the Trebil border crossing between Jordan and Iraq late Friday, which has forced the closure of the border.

Meanwhile, at least 13 Iraqis were reported killed or their bodies found Saturday, including two men mown down in broad daylight in Baghdad.

Three people were killed in the oil-rich region of Kirkuk, while a former intelligence officer under Saddam, Zaid Hassan, was assassinated by masked gunmen in Baquba.

Back in Mosul, nine more bodies of security officers were discovered, four of them decapitated, bringing to 66 the number of police or national guardsmen who have been found dead in the city since November 19.

The bullet-riddled body of a woman official from Saddam's home province of Salaheddin who was kidnapped on Thursday, was found near the oil refinery town of Baiji.

The governor of Dohuk province escaped a second assassination attempt, in a bomb attack claimed by the Islamist Ansar al-Sunna group. The same group claimed another attempt on Nishervan Ahmed's life on September 14.

And despite the fact that US marines on Friday declared a massive sweep to clear the zone south of Baghdad of rebels over, a US-Iraqi patrol in the area came under attack there and rebels reappeared in the town of rebel hotbed of Latifiyah.

National guards and US soldiers came under attack from automatic and rocket-propelled grenade fire on the main road linking Baghdad with the south, a witness said, while an AFP correspondent saw armed and masked men searching houses in the town, 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Baghdad, seeking out national guards.

Some 850 British soldiers who had been sent to back up US forces in the sweep, which began November 23, returned to their base in the southern city of Basra, London's defence ministry announced.

But despite domestic opposition to British involvement in more dangerous areas, analysts have predicted that London will send more troops to Iraq ahead of the crunch January vote.

"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.

The Pentagon announced this week that it will boost its forces to their highest post-invasion levels ahead of the January elections.

And in Amman, the World Bank signed three contracts for Iraqi reconstruction and health projects worth 145 million dollars -- part of the 400 million dollar Iraq trust fund administered by the institution.

Their "religion" absolutely forbids it.

"Islam is, Khataw preaches, a peaceful religion that is focused on charity and goodwill toward others."

No, it's not. I won't go into *what it is*, as I'd probably get in trouble... aw, what the heck:

Islam, The Cult of Murder™.

Islam, The Cult of Terror™.

Islam, The Cult of Boy-Buggering™.

Islam, The Cult of Women-Chattelling™.

Islam, The Cult of Horror™.

Islam, The Cult of Rape™.

Islam, The Cult of Killing™.

Islam, The Cult of Subhumans™.

Islam, The Cult of Beheading™.

Islam, The Cult of Pigsh!t™.

Islam, The Cult of Deviants™.

Islam, The Cult of Degenerates™.

Islam, The Cult of Female Mutilation™.

Islam, The Cult of Death™.

Islam, The Cult of Christian & Jew Killing™.

Islam, The Cult of Infidel Murder™.

Islam, The Cult of Garbage™.

Islam, The Cult of Trash™.

Islam, The Cult of Filth™.

Islam, The Cult of The Mentally-Ill™.

Islam the Cult of Evil™.

""""""""""""MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) - At least 17 Kurdish militiamen were killed in a suicide car bombing in the northern city of Mosul, exacerbating fears that a riding tide of violence could derail Iraq's January elections.""""""""""

Love the elections comment they threw in there. The elections aren't even close to being derailed. The elections will go on, period.

I love how these journalists immediately seek to instill fear in everyone with these lousy catch-phrases.

As noted in W Safires piece in the NYTimes last week:

"This whole story was an exercise in political spin," he replied. As he had just told Sir David Frost on BBC, Iraq is not the calamity we see on television. "I was supposed to be a Kurdish representative to that meeting, but it wasn't possible," Dr. Salih informed me. "A junior representative took part. No decision was made, and we did not endorse the delaying of the election."

No waffling? "We have demonstrated our resolve in Falluja," Salih said. "Holding the election will be tough, but delaying it would be tougher. We will do everything in our power to honor our commitment to free elections."

There has been a build up of violence in Mosul, of which this is only one latest incident. It will make a big impact in the Kurdish community. However, I suspect that this and other incidents may have participation by rival Kurdish milias - their society is tribal and always full of divisions. There is a lot of hostility to the PKK by other Kurdish cheifs who don't like Barzani.

Stupid AFP. It's NOT "Saad Pira!" It's Sadi Ahmed Pire. So much for accuracy in reporting.

And since it is Sadi Ahmed Pire, it's PUK. It's also from Suleimani, PUK's home city. So, BlackVeil, what does that have to do with the PKK or "other Kurdish chiefs who don't like Barzani?" Barzani is not the head of PUK. You know, the PKK/KGK/HPG would take a very dim view of your associating them with "tribalism."

Yes, there has been a buildup of violence in and around Mosul for months, most of it aimed at Kurds, so it is absurd to blame these murders on Kurds themselves. It is the work of the same Islamic terrorists who have publicly called the Kurds "infidels." This week has also seen an assassination attempt against the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, and just today was another attempted assassination against the Kurdish governor of Dohuk province.

The two major Kurdish parties have been slowly unifying their efforts. Ordinary Kurds in Kurdistan are sick of the brakujî--fratricide--that the two parties inflicted on each other in the 90s and they are determined that this will not happen again. Ordinary Kurds are also of one mind--independence. There are just certain things on which Kurds are not divided.

Agreed, it is wrong to call the victims "trash." They are now considered shehîds, shehîds for Kurdistan.

Time to outlaw cars for a while. Bikes for everybody.

I am dead **kin sick of this car bomb BS.

IEDs, too. Anybody know of a good thread where the assembly, specs of IEDs are detailed?

The article states the following: "A lion of the Martyrs' Brigade attacked a convoy of the Kurdish Workers Party, killing more than 50 apostates," attributing the attack to "The Al-Qaeda group of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqaqi. . ."

I don't know of any Kurdish Workers Party, but I do know of a Kurdistan Workers Party. I don't know any al-Zarqaqi, but I do know of an al-Zarqawi.

Either al-Zarqawi's gang doesn't know the PUK from the PKK or AFP is engaging in it's usual level of accuracy.

Yes, I know the PKI (PDKI?). They are usually located in the PUK area because that area borders Iran.

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