Iraqnam News: Quisling Baghdad Governor Executed, Marine Fallujahed

Al-Zarqawi claims slaying of Baghdad governor


In other attacks, 10 Iraqis dead after car bombing, 5 GIs killed


MSNBC News Services
Updated: 9:43 a.m. ET Jan. 4, 2005BAGHDAD, Iraq - A group led by al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the assassination of the governor of Baghdad province and six of his bodyguards on Tuesday, according to an Internet statement. Separately, a suicide truck bomber killed 10 people at an Interior Ministry commando headquarters in western Baghdad, the latest in a steady drumbeat of insurgent violence ahead of Jan. 30 elections.

Meantime, a roadside bomb blast in northern Baghdad killed three U.S. soldiers on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.

The blast came near midday and also wounded two soldiers. The military statement said another roadside bombing north of Baghdad killed a soldier and wounded another and that a Marine was killed in action in the western Anbar province.

The toll represented the deadliest day for the U.S. military since a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including 14 soldiers and three American contractors near Mosul on Dec. 21.


The deaths brought the number of U.S. military and Pentagon personnel killed in action since the start of the Iraq war in 2003 to 1,053. Including non-combat deaths, the toll is 1,338.

Baghdad governor shot dead
Governor Ali al-Haidari’s three-vehicle convoy was passing through Baghdad’s northern neighborhood of Hurriyah when unidentified gunmen opened fire, said the chief of his security detail, who asked only to be identified as Maj. Mazen.

“Our convoy was moving in Hurriyah and they came from different directions and opened fire at us,” said Maj. Mazen, reached on al-Haidari’s cell phone.

Al-Zarqawi’s statement said "a group of mujahideen of the Qaida Organization for Holy War in Iraq assassinated a tyrant and American agent, the governor of Baghdad Ali Haidari."

It added, in a statement posted on an Islamic website, "We warn every traitor and ally of the Jews and the Christians that this will be your fate."

Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for some of the bloodiest suicide bombings and attacks in Iraq.

Al-Haidari was the target of another assassination attempt last year that killed two of his bodyguards. He is the highest-ranking Iraqi official killed since the former president of the now defunct Governing Council, Abdel-Zahraa Othman, better known as Izzadine Saleem, was assassinated in May.

Speaking in Phuket, Thailand, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was saddened to hear of al-Haidari’s death. It comes with the government trying to plan for Jan. 30 elections for a national assembly, a vote the insurgents have promised to sabotage.

“It once again shows that there are these murderers and terrorists, former regime elements in Iraq, who don’t want to see elections. They don’t want the people of Iraq to chose new leaders. They want to go back to the past. They want to go back to the tyranny of Saddam Hussein’s regime and that’s not going to happen,” Powell said.

On Nov. 1, al-Haidari’s deputy Hatim Kamil was shot dead while on his way to work. The Ansar al-Sunnah Army militant group claimed responsibility for that attack.


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Bloody day in Baghdad
Tuesday’s attacks came a day after violence that saw three car bombs and a roadside attack, one near the prime minister’s party headquarters in Baghdad and others targeting Iraqi troops and a U.S. security company convoy. At least 16 people were killed Monday.


Iraq’s insurgents have repeatedly targeted government officials and security forces around the country, saying they are allies of the U.S.-led coalition.

Britain’s Foreign Office said Tuesday that three Britons were killed in Iraq a day earlier. Britain’s Press Association reported that the three Britons were killed along with an American in the car bombing of the U.S. security company.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Bob Callahan said the convoy was carrying employees of the New York-based risk consulting group Kroll Inc. but had no details. An Associated Press photographer saw three bodies burning inside the wrecked vehicle.

Britain’s Press Association reported that a spokeswoman at Kroll’s global headquarters in New York confirmed that two victims were British employees of Kroll and that another two were clients of the company.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6727646/

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report