Al Qaeda group claims attack on Kurd official Web posted at: 5/25/2005 3:31:57
Source ::: AFP
DUBAI: An Al Qaeda linked group said it was behind a car bomb attack on a convoy of a Kurdish official from the party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that killed five other people, according to a statement posted on its website yesterday.
The Army of Ansar al-Sunna said its militants detonated on Monday a car bomb against the convoy of an official from Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the northern region of Kirkuk.
The official, who was not named in the statement, was "seriously wounded, and did not die," it said, calling on "those helping the Crusaders and the Jews... to repent."
Iraqi police said five people were killed and 19 others wounded when a driver in a pick-up truck blew himself up outside the town hall in the northern town of Tuz Khurmatu, 70km south of Kirkuk on Monday.
The PUK said party official Mohammed Mahmud was wounded and taken to hospital.
The Army of Ansar Al Sunna has claimed a string of attacks in Iraq, including murders of foreign hostages and Iraqis accused of "collaborating" with US-led forces.
It has often released video footage of the killings on Islamist websites.
Insurgents Flourish in Iraq's Wild West
The center of the rebel movement has shifted to Al Anbar province, near the border with Syria. But the U.S. has been moving its forces away.
By Mark Mazzetti and Solomon Moore
Times Staff Writers
May 24, 2005
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military's plan to pacify Iraq has run into trouble in a place where it urgently needs to succeed.
U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad agree that Al Anbar province — the vast desert badlands stretching west from the cities of Fallouja and Ramadi to the lawless region abutting the Syrian border — remains the epicenter of the country's deadly insurgency.
Yet U.S. troops and military officials in the embattled province said in recent interviews that they have neither enough combat power nor enough Iraqi military support to mount an effective counterinsurgency against an increasingly sophisticated enemy.
"You can't get all the Marines and train them on a single objective, because usually the objective is bigger than you are," said Maj. Mark Lister, a senior Marine air officer in Al Anbar province. "Basically, we've got all the toys, but not enough boys."
MORE >>>> http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-milassess24may24,1,5373144,print.story?coll=la-iraq-complete <<<< MORE
