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Attacks kill Iraqi police, civilians

BAGHDAD - Insurgent car bombs struck a market and a police bus Friday, killing at least 25 people, and a dozen bodies were uncovered in a garbage dump on the outskirts of Baghdad - some victims blindfolded and shot execution-style.

More than 270 people, many of them Iraqi soldiers and police, have been killed since Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announced his new government April 28.

Representatives of al-Jaafari's Shiite-dominated alliance planned to meet with Sunni Arab leaders today to discuss candidates for defense minister and six other unfilled posts.

The bodies were discovered by scavengers sifting through garbage for scrap metal and other items to sell at a dump on Baghdad's northeastern outskirts, police and soldiers said.

There were conflicting accounts of how many bodies were found. Bassim al-Maslokhi, a soldier who was guarding the area during the recovery, counted 14; Kadhim al-Itabi, a police chief, put the number at 12.

The victims, believed to be Iraqis, were found in shallow graves and seemed to have been killed recently, al-Maslokhi said. Some were blindfolded and had been shot in the head, he said.

Families identified some of the victims as farmers who disappeared recently on their way to a market to sell their produce, said an official, Rahoumi Jassim.

In nearby Suwayrah, 25 miles south of the capital, a suicide car bombing at a market killed 17 civilians and wounded 46, police, hospital and government officials said.

Such attacks often target U.S. military patrols, Iraqi security forces or mosques, but police said there were no obvious targets.

In Tikrit, a car packed with explosives and bearing a taxi sign destroyed a police minibus, said U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Brian Thomas and Iraqi army Maj. Salman Abdul Wahid.

The attack at a checkpoint killed at least eight off-duty policemen, said police Lt. Col. Saad Abdul Hamid.

The van's driver had frantically tried to alert other policemen to the bomber when the explosives were detonated, a policeman who survived the attack said.

"The driver of the van was waving to us and pointing his finger at the other car," said Bairam Athal, 27, a policeman who had been at the checkpoint.

Athal loaded his AK-47 and pointed it at the attacker, but the explosion knocked him down before he could fire, he said from a hospital as doctors stitched his wounds.

The attacker had followed the van, loaded with police headed home on leave, after it left Tikrit's City Council offices.

In south Baghdad, two insurgents fired at American soldiers on patrol; one militant was killed in the return fire, the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD - Arab television station Al-Jazeera aired new footage of Australian hostage Douglas Wood, and said the militants holding him gave Australia 72 hours to start withdrawing its forces from Iraq. It did not say what the militants would do if their deadline isn't met.

In the footage, the 63-year-old California resident, who has a serious heart condition, is shown with his head shaven and rifles pointed at him. Australia's government has said it will not remove its 1,370 troops.

Al-Jazeera also aired footage Friday purporting to show six Jordanian hostages captured by a different militant group demanding that all Jordanian companies stop cooperating with U.S. forces. The authenticity of the video could not be verified.

BAGHDAD - U.S. and Iraqi forces have captured or killed hundreds of followers of Iraq's most wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in recent months, including 20 top lieutenants and other senior members, the U.S. military said Friday.

U.S. forces believe they just missed capturing al-Zarqawi during a Feb. 20 raid. The raid took place west of the capital, between Hit and Haditha, according to Friday's statement. Al-Zarqawi escaped as coalition forces closed in on his vehicle, but an aide was apprehended, the military said.

The Iraqi government had identified the aide as Ahmad Khalid Marad Ismail al-Rawi, also known as Abu Uthman. But the U.S. military said he was captured in an earlier raid and identified the one seized Feb. 20 as Mahir Sabah Injil Hinaydis al-Unayzi.

The U.S. military quoted Unayzi as saying during questioning: "Zarqawi became hysterical. Zarqawi did not know where he was because he demanded repeatedly "Who lives in this area? What sub-tribe is here?' "

[Last modified May 7, 2005, 01:05:07]