BAGHDAD,
December 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - With unabated
attacks and bombings leaving at least 41 Iraqis and six occupation forces
dead in the past 24 hours, a senior UN official cast doubt on the
possibility of organizing the scheduled elections in the war-torn
country as scheduled.
UN
Iraqi envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told the Dutch newspaper NRC
Handelsblad that the general elections, slated for January 30,
could only be held “if first and foremost security improves,”
reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) Sunday, December 5.
“If
the poll took place only in secure areas of Iraq it would exclude the
Sunni minority, who live in extremely tense areas such as Fallujah and
Samarra,” added the UN official.
“This
does not work. We have to find something which does. If we let the
situation get even worse, it will just become more dangerous.”
Seventeen
Iraqi parties, including interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's, pressed
on Friday, November 27, for a six-month delay of the January elections
to allow for an improvement of the security conditions in the country.
41
Iraqis Killed
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US soldiers assess the scene following a car bomb in the Karrada district of Baghdad
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On
the ground, at least 17 Iraqi civilians working for a US contractor
were killed and 13 others wounded Sunday, December 5.
The
Iraqis were ambushed on their way to work in the northern Iraqi city
of Tikrit, hometown of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, the US
military said.
“The
civilians were traveling to work in civilian buses when men in two
pick-up trucks attacked them with small arms fire,” US Master
Sergeant Robert Powell told AFP.
Meanwhile,
three Iraqi national guardsmen, including Mohammed Jassem, the Baiji
national guard commander, were killed and 10 others wounded in a car
bomb attack, Powell said.
“Three
Iraqi national guards were killed and 10 wounded when anti-Iraqi
forces attacked a checkpoint near Baiji at 9:30 am (0630 GMT) with a
vehicle-borne explosive device and small arms fire.”
In
Samarra, south of Tikrit, one Iraqi soldier was killed and four were
wounded when fighters attacked their patrol with rocket-propelled
grenades and small arms fire.
The
new fatalities came a day after a series of bomb attacks and car
blasts hit several areas of the war-torn country, leaving scores of
Iraqis killed.
In
the northern city of Mosul, 17 Kurdish militiamen were killed and more
than 40 others wounded when a car bomber rammed their convoy as they
were traveling through the Karama neighborhood.
In
Baghdad, four Iraqi policemen were also killed and 49 others wounded
in a double car bombings.
On
Friday, December 3, twenty six people
were killed in two separate attacks against police stations in
Baghdad.
Iraqi
police and security forces have been targeted throughout central,
western and northern Iraq in recent weeks.
Occupation
Forces
Two
American soldiers were killed and four wounded in an attack on their
patrol in Mosul, the army military said.
“The
soldiers from Task Force Olympia were shot dead during an attack on
their patrol in the city 370 kilometers (250 miles) north of Baghdad
at around 3:00 pm (1200 GMT) on Saturday,” an army statement said.
Two
US soldiers were killed in separate roadside bomb attacks in Baghdad
and the hotspot of Baquba.
Two
more multinational force soldiers were killed and five wounded in a car
bombing at the Trebil border crossing between Jordan and Iraq late
Friday.
The
United States has been forced to increase by early January the number
of troops to about 150,000 from 138,000, the highest number since it
declared an end to major combat.
According
to the latest Pentagon tally, 1,254 US military troops have been
killed and 9,326 injured since the US-led war on the oil-rich Iraq.
