Blasts amid beheading threat

Militants loyal to suspected al-Qaida terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi threatened to behead three Turkish hostages, fanning tensions as President George W Bush visited Turkey. The death toll rose to more than 20 in an explosion south of Baghdad.

The kidnappers said the hostages would be killed unless Turkish companies stop doing business with American forces in Iraq and called for protests in Turkey against Bush’s visit.

The military said a pair of car bombs may have caused the explosion late on Saturday in downtown Hillah, a largely Shiite Muslim city south of Baghdad. Iraqi police and Hillah-area hospitals reported 23 people were killed and 58 wounded.

The US military had reported 40 dead and 22 wounded but revised the figure downward in line with the Iraqi count.

Elsewhere, three mortar shells exploded today at the Mosul office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a pro-US political party. Four party members were wounded, a PUK official said. A Mosul policeman was killed in a drive-by shooting in another incident, police said.

A strong explosion rocked central Baghdad today, and smoke rose from the US-guarded Green Zone. The US military said it had no details.

Explosions were also heard early today on the northern outskirts of the troubled city of Fallujah, west of the capital. Residents said a US Marine position was attacked by mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, but there was no confirmation from US officials.

The bloodshed and the abductions threatened to cast a shadow over a Nato summit opening in Istanbul on Monday, where Bush is seeking the alliance’s help in stabilizing Iraq.

The United States has blamed much of the violence on al-Zarqawi’s Tawhid and Jihad movement, and reiterated appeals to the Iraqi people to come forward with any information that might lead to his capture.

Coalition spokesman Dan Senor suggested that a $10m (€8.2m) bounty on al-Zarqawi’s head would be paid quickly and noted that those who turned in Saddam’s sons last year received their multi-million dollar reward within a week.

Iraq’s interim prime minister warned that if security does not improve, it may become necessary to delay national elections set for January – a key landmark in the path to democracy that the United States has tried to enshrine before handing power to the Iraqis on Wednesday.

The January 31 deadline for elections laid out in Iraq’s interim constitution is “not absolute yet … but we hope, and all of us will work toward that objective”, Allawi told CBS News in an interview.

“However, security will be (the) main feature of whether we will be able to do it in January, February or March,” he said.