17 dead in Iraqi violence today

Gunmen assassinated the governor of Baghdad province and six of his bodyguards in an ambush today, and a suicide tanker truck bomber killed 10 people at an Interior Ministry commando headquarters in western Baghdad.

It was the latest in a steady drumbeat of insurgent violence ahead of elections on January 30.

Governor Ali al-Haidari’s three-vehicle convoy was passing through Baghdad’s northern neighbourhood of Hurriyah when gunmen opened fire, said the chief of his security detail, identified as Major Mazen.

"The governor was in his armoured BMW and we were in two other cars,” said Major Mazen.

“Our convoy was moving in Hurriyah and they came from different directions and opened fire at us.”

Al-Haidari was the target of another assassination attempt last year that killed two of his bodyguards. He is the highest-ranking Iraqi official killed since the former president of the now defunct Governing Council, Izzadine Saleem, was assassinated in May.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said: “It once again shows that there are these murderers and terrorists, former regime elements in Iraq, who don’t want to see elections.

"They don’t want the people of Iraq to chose new leaders. They want to go back to the past. They want to go back to the tyranny of Saddam Hussein’s regime and that’s not going to happen.”

In Western Baghdad today, a tanker truck packed with explosives detonated near an Interior Ministry commando headquarters, killing 10 people and wounding about 60, the Interior Ministry said.

A suicide driver rammed the truck at an Iraqi police checkpoint near the headquarters, which is also near an entrance of the Green Zone, the fortified home of the US embassy and the interim Iraqi government.

Eight Iraqi commandos and two civilians were killed.

The attacks came a day after violence that saw three car bombs and a roadside attack, one near the prime minister’s party headquarters in Baghdad and others targeting Iraqi troops and a US security company convoy.

At least 16 people were killed including three British civilians who died when their vehicle was blown up near the Green Zone.

Iraq’s insurgents have repeatedly targeted government officials and security forces around the country, saying they are allies of the US-led coalition.