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Iraqi women watch an occupation soldier in Baghdad (AFP)
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BAGHDAD,
March 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Just ahead of the
U.N. talks on the long awaited transfer of power in Iraq, bloodshed
and insecurity continue to ravage the occupied country.
Five
Iraqis and a U.S. soldier were injured in bomb blast in Baquba, 2
British civilians were killed and 3 U.S. soldiers wounded in separate
drive-by shootings in Mosul, 3 Iraqi civilians were injured in a bomb
blast in Kirkuk and a 3-year-old Iraqi boy was killed and 7 people
were injured, including four women and two girls, when U.S. troops
opened fire on civilian cars in Tikrit.
Baquba
Five
Iraqis and a U.S. soldier were injured in bomb blasts Sunday, March
28, in continued bloodletting ahead of talks between U.N. experts and
Iraqi officials on the upcoming transfer of power in Iraq.
A
roadside bomb exploded near a school outside the flashpoint town of
Baquba, north of Baghdad, wounding five Iraqi civilians, including two
children - aged 10 and 8 - according to a police officer told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
In
Baghdad, one U.S. soldier was slightly wounded in a bomb blast against
a convoy in west Baghdad, the military said.
Mosul
Two
British described by a local official as British guards at a power
station were killed in a drive-by shooting in Iraq's main northern
city of Mosul Sunday, police said.
"Two
British nationals were killed by armed, masked men who opened fire
from an Opel car before fleeing the scene," Captain Jalal
Mohammad Mahmud told AFP.
He
said the attack occurred 150 meters (yards) from the power station
serving the east of Mosul where the men worked.
The
victims were in a two-car convoy heading to the power station at the
time of the attack.
Three
British engineers in the first car managed to drive into the compound
as the shooting began and escaped unhurt but the second car got caught
up in the automatic weapons fire, the officer said.
Mahmud
said British engineers frequently came to the power station to check
on reconstruction work there, although they did not visit according to
any specific schedule.
Also
in Mosul, three U.S. soldiers were seriously wounded in a drive-by
shooting Sunday, the U.S. occupation military said.
Gunmen
opened fire from a car on a "U.S. patrol, seriously injuring
three American soldiers and setting their Humvee vehicle on
fire", a U.S. soldier at the scene told AFP.
The
incident occurred around 12:15 pm (0915 GMT) in Mosul's industrial
zone, he said.
Kirkuk
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Five Iraqis and a U.S. soldier were injured in bomb blast in Baquba
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Moving
to Kirkuk, three Iraqi civilians were injured Sunday when a
bomb concealed in a police sentry box exploded in the center of this
northern Iraqi city during morning rush hour, a police officer said.
"The
bomb was planted in a sentry box. It exploded at 8:25 am (0525 GMT) as
motorists were stopped at a red traffic light. Three civilians in a
car were injured and taken to Kirkuk General Hospital," said
Captain Dashdi Taleb.
Their
condition was not immediately known.
On
Saturday, an Iraqi police colonel was shot dead as he was stepping out
of his house in kirkuk.
Also
in Tikrit, a three-year-old Iraqi boy was killed and seven people were
injured, including four women and two girls, when U.S. troops opened
fire on civilian cars, police said Saturday.
Major
Mohammad Khalaf told AFP that the incident took place late Friday,
March 26, outside the local council building in central Tikrit, where
U.S. troops are stationed.
"At
8:00 pm (1700 GMT) a red car carrying civilians drove past the local
council and came under fire from U.S. troops who were inside the
building," the officer said.
Three-year-old
Abdel Samad Tikriti was critically injured in the incident and died on
arrival at Tikrit Hospital, while six female members of his family,
including two girls, and one male relative were injured.
A
spokeswoman for the U.S. military could not confirm the report but
said "three Iraqi civilians were wounded when a 1st Infantry
Division patrol engaged a vehicle that refused to stop at a traffic
control point in Tikrit" at 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) Friday night.
Doctor
Qussay Rashid of Tikrit Hospital told AFP that one man and one woman
were in "critical condition".
Meanwhile
another motorist, Mustafa Barazan Abdel Rashid, who had arrived on the
scene minutes after the shooting, said he saw the red car riddled with
bullets and police evacuating the casualties.
Abdel
Rashid -- whose cousin was married to Qussay Saddam Hussein, one of
the former dictator's two sons who were killed by US troops in July --
said US troops stopped him and searched him before letting him go
free.
"They
did not find any weapons on me so they let me go. I was bleeding
profusely from an injury to the hand and the Iraqi police took me to
hospital," he said.
Abdel
Rashid is also the nephew of Maher Abdel Rashid, a general who served
under Saddam and the father of Qussay's wife.
"Offensive
Operations"
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A fire-gutted vehicle lies in the middle of a road after two British guards were killed in an attack in Mosul
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Amid
such relentless clashes, U.S. troops continued to conduct
"offensive operations" to track down Iraqi fighters in the
so-called Sunni triangle northwest of Baghdad.
U.S.
troops and Iraqi paramilitary forces sealed off two large parts of
Samarra, north of Baghdad.
A
paramilitary officer who did not wish to be identified told AFP that
the move was part of a major counterinsurgency offensive in the mainly
Sunni Arab town, which has been a hotbed of anti-occupation violence.
Late
Saturday, dozens of U.S. tanks and armored vehicles sealed the main
entrance to the flashpoint town of Fallujah west of Baghdad, a day
after deadly clashes
between marines and Iraqi fighter that left sixteen Iraqis killed and
up to 30 others wounded.
A
U.S. military statement said Saturday that the marines "are
currently conducting offensive operations in Fallujah in order to
foster a secure and stable environment for the people of Al
Anbar" province.
On
the political front, Muwaffaq Al-Rubaie, a prominent member of the
interim Governing Council, said he was due to meet later Sunday with a
visiting U.N. team on holding elections, conducting a census and
assembling a caretaker government set to rule when sovereignty returns
to Iraqis on June 30.
"I
am due to meet with the U.N. technical team in the afternoon, but it
will not be open to the press. It is a closed meeting," he said.
Council
member Mahmud Othman said "the U.N. technical team met Saturday
and is meeting today with officials from the Coalition Provisional
Authority," the U.S.-led body ruling Iraq.
"I
expect to see them tomorrow or the next day," he said.
The
U.N. mission's visit began Friday amid political wrangling over the
country's interim constitution.
But
an aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the influential spiritual
leader of Iraq's majority Shiites and the main critic of the
constitution, said the cleric would not call for protests even if his
reservations over the law were ignored.
Sistani
has threatened to boycott talks with the U.N. representatives unless
the United Nations declares non-binding the interim law, which he
rejected for granting what he considers excessively broad rights to
the Kurdish minority.
