Rebels kill another 16 in campaign to stop election

A roadside explosion and three separate car bombs – one near the prime minister’s party headquarters in Baghdad – killed at least 16 people in Iraq today.

The attacks were seen as part of the deadly rebel campaign to disrupt national elections this month, which one senior Iraqi official said today could be postponed.

A car bomb exploded at a US-manned checkpoint to the Green Zone, the heavily fortified area that houses the US embassy and Iraqi government offices in Baghdad,

Three bodies were seen burning inside the destroyed vehicle a 4X4 vehicle of the type used by foreign security guards and diplomats. The nationalities of the victims were not immediately known.

The checkpoint is the main Green Zone exit for trips to Baghdad International Airport west of the city.

Meanwhile, Iraqi defence minister Hazem Shaalan raised the possibility Monday that Iraqi elections could be postponed to try to persuade minority Sunni Muslims to participate in the vote.

The first strike by an explosive-laden car near Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s party headquarters killed two policemen and one civilian and injured 25 others. The secular Shiite leader was not inside the building in Baghdad’s western district of Harithiya at the time.

The second car bomb attack took place in Balad, 50 miles north of the capital, killing four Iraqi National Guard Soldiers and wounding 14 The driver of the car bomb died in the blast.

The third strike occurred in Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit, killing at least six Guardsmen and injuring four others in a roadside explosion, police said.

“Anti-Iraqi forces continue to target the Iraqi National Guard” because the ING is creating conditions for ”successful elections,” said US military spokesman Neal O’Brien.

Car bombings and roadside explosions have become a standard feature of the deadly insurgency in Iraq ahead of the elections scheduled for January 30.

On Sunday, a car bombing also in Balad killed at least 22 national guardsmen and their bus driver. Ten other people were killed in separate attacks Sunday.

US officials have warned of violence ahead of the landmark vote for a national assembly, and the guerrillas have made good on those fears with tragic ease.

Iraq’s poorly equipped security forces usually have far less training than American troops, and attacks on them usually result in more casualties.

Police said the yellow car exploded shortly before 10 a.m. Monday after trying to ram a police checkpoint outside the offices of Allawi’s Iraqi National Accord party in a western Baghdad district.

An Iraqi policeman was killed and two others were wounded when a beheaded, booby-trapped corpse exploded in the northern city of Mosul as “Iraqi police officers secured the site and attempted to search the remains in order to identify the body”, a government statement said Monday. It was not clear when the incident happened.

“This is another example of how the criminals and terrorists – attempting to thwart Iraq’s efforts to conduct free and fair elections – have no regard for their fellow countrymen,” the government said.