Eight killed in Iraq market mortar attack

A mortar blast at a market north of Baghdad killed eight civilians shortly after the United Nations announced plans to scale back its international staff because of continuing violence.

The mortar went off at a market in Baqouba, about 30 miles north of Baghdad. Eight civilians died and another 18 were injured, the US Army said.

Troops of the US 4th Infantry Division rushed to the scene to help in the rescue.

In Baghdad, Iraqi leaders prepared to bury an assassinated member of Iraq’s Governing Council, the first leading administration figure to succumb to the violence embroiling the country five months after the Saddam Hussein was ousted.

Aquila al-Hashimi, one of three women on the 25-member Governing Council, died of wounds suffered in an ambush near her home on September 20.

The council declared three days of mourning and said al-Hashimi “fell as a martyr on the path of freedom and democracy to build this great nation. She died at the hands of a clique of infidels and cunning people who only know darkness.” The current council president, Ahmad Chalabi, blamed her death on Saddam loyalists.

The inability of the US-led coalition to stop the violence was behind a decision by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to order a further reduction of UN international staff in Iraq.

Annan’s order came days after the second bombing outside UN headquarters in Baghdad on Monday killed an Iraqi policeman and injured 19 others.

About 300 international staff have been working in Baghdad and another 300 elsewhere in Iraq, but Annan ordered the number to be reduced to 42 in Baghdad and 44 in the north.

US spokesman Fred Eckhard said he did not know how many international staffers would leave for Amman, Jordan, under the latest order. They are to depart within the next two days.

Eckhard announced the new cuts as the Security Council debates a new resolution the United States hopes will bring new troops and money to Iraq. Opponents of the US-led war in Iraq – including France, Germany and Russia – are calling for the United Nations to take over the political transition and are demanding a speedier timetable for the handover of power than the United States has proposed.

Meanwhile, US defence officials were considering a call-up of more troops. There are 130,000 American troops in Iraq, supported by several thousand peacekeepers from Britain, Poland and other supporting countries.