At least four Iraqis were killed Monday when a civilian bus was hit by an explosion west of Baghdad, witnesses said. According to Reuters, they said a bomb, possibly in a car, went off on a main road in Khalidiyah village near Fallujah, some 50 kilometers west of Baghdad.
Earlier, a car bomb exploded northeast of the Iraqi capital, in what police said was an attempt to assassinate a deputy governor. At least six people were reported killed.
The apparent target - Diyala province Deputy Governor Aqil Hamid al-Adili - was wounded. At least 16 other people were wounded in the explosion in Balad Ruz, some 65 kilometers northeast of Baghdad, said Qaiser Hamid, a hospital official in the area.
Meanwhile, heavy fighting continued in the holy city of Najaf between Iraqi security forces, backed by US Marines, and Shiite fighters.
The sound of crashing mortars and machine gun fire could be heard at the western and northern entrances of Najaf from AFP said. A Najaf hospital spokesman said three were killed, including two policemen, and 19 wounded. The U.S. military claims hundreds of Shiite fighters have been killed in the clashes in recent days; Al Sadr fighters put the number far lower.
In Baghdad, the US military said four mortar bombs were fired Monday morning at the district council hall in Sadr City. Missing the council hall, they slammed into neighbouring houses, a spokesman said. Further explosions could be heard coming from the northeastern neighbourhood in the subsequent hour.
In the south, a spokeswoman said a British base came under mortar fire twice overnight and that numerous British patrols came under small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade attacks in the restive city of Amara.
On his part, Iraq's defense minister, Hazem Shaalan, accused neighboring Iran of helping arm the Shiite fighters and branded Iran his country's "first enemy."
"There are Iranian-made weapons that have been found in the hands of criminals in Najaf who received these weapons from across the Iranian border," Shaalan said in an interview with the Arab-language television network al-Arabiya.
"From far and near, the facts that we have say that what has happened to the Iraqi people is done by the one who is considered as the first enemy," he said.
(albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
