Three explosions hit Baghdad as violence continues

A day after insurgents killed at least 36 Iraqis in a series of attacks, including the bombing of a funeral, militants set off three explosions in Baghdad today, including one that narrowly missed a top Iraqi security official, police said.

No casualties were immediately reported in today’s three attacks, including one that targeted a US military patrol and another that set fire to a six-storey apartment building, police said.

Sunday’s casualties included 25 Iraqis killed and more than 50 wounded by a car bomb that ripped through a tent packed with mourners at the funeral of a Kurdish official in the northern city of Tal Afar.

It was the single deadliest attack since insurgents started bearing down on Iraq’s newly named government late last week.

US and Iraqi forces imposed a curfew in Tal Afar, and by this morning had encircled it and stopped all traffic from entering or leaving the city, said deputy provincial governor Khisru Goran.

In five blood-soaked days in Iraq, at least 116 people, including 11 Americans, have been killed in a number of bombings and ambushes.

On Sunday, Iraqi militants released a video purporting to show Iraq’s latest foreign hostage: an Australian who said he is married to an American and lives in California.

The Foreign Office in London also announced three arrests in the abduction of a British aid worker believed killed last year, saying they were made on Sunday morning during a coalition raid in an insurgent area 18 miles south of Baghdad.

In today’s attacks in Baghdad, Major General Rashid Feleih, the commander of a special Interior Ministry security force, narrowly escaped unhurt when a roadside bomb hit his four-car convoy, damaging one vehicle, said police Major Mousa Abdul Karim.

In southern Baghdad, a car bomb exploded in an upscale shopping district of south-central Baghdad, setting fire to a six-storey apartment building with a shop on the ground floor, said police Lt. Ali Hussein. He said no casualties were immediately reported.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb exploded near a US military patrol in northern Baghdad, but no Americans were hurt, said US Army Master Sgt. Greg Kaufman.

In Tal Afar, 93 miles east of the Syrian border, the car bomb exploded at a tent where mourners had gathered for the funeral of Sayed Talib Sayed Wahab, an official of the Kurdish Democratic Party, said Goran, who also serves as a KDP spokesman in the nearby city of Mosul.

Goran said the car ploughed into the funeral tent and exploded, but the US military said it was not a suicide attack. About 25 people were killed and more than 50 wounded, the US military said.

Six other car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Sunday and at least five American soldiers were injured in the blasts, said Sgt. Andrew Miller, a US military spokesman.

US and Iraqi officials had hoped to dent support for the militants by including members of the Sunni Arab minority in a new Shiite-dominated Cabinet that will be sworn in Tuesday. Sunnis, who held monopoly power during the rule of Saddam Hussein, are believed to be the backbone of Iraq’s insurgency.

However, the line-up named by incoming Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari after months of political wrangling excluded Sunnis from meaningful positions and left the key defence and oil ministries – among other unfilled posts – in temporary hands.

Insurgents have used their spectacular attacks and hostage takings to drive home their opposition to US-led forces and their Iraqi allies.

A video tape obtained by Associated Press Television News on Sunday showed a man identifying himself as Douglas Wood, 63, seated between two masked militants pointing automatic weapons at him.

Wood, appearing dishevelled and shaken, said he was an Australian national living in the San Francisco area with his American wife. He said he came to Iraq almost a year ago to work on reconstruction projects with the American military. Wood’s American wife, Pearl, said she had seen the tape and the man was indeed her husband.

The captive appealed to US President George Bush, Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to order coalition forces out of Iraq and let Iraqis look after themselves, saying he did not want to die.

“My captors are fiercely patriotic. They believe in a strong united Iraq looking after its own destiny,” Wood said on the tape.

A militant group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen of Iraq claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. The group previously said it abducted a Turkish national who was freed in September.

Wood is the second Australian kidnapped in Iraq. Journalist John Martinkus was seized in Baghdad in October and held for about 24 hours.

More than 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s regime collapsed in April 2003. More than 30 hostages have been killed by the captors.

Despite the unrelenting violence, Iraq’s national security adviser said the fledgling government was making progress against the insurgents.

“There is no shadow of doubt in my mind that by the end of the year, we would have achieved a lot,” Mouwafak al-Rubaie said in an interview with CNN. “Probably the back of the insurgency has already been broken.”

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office in London said on Sunday that three arrests had been made in connection with the abduction of a British aid worker believed killed last year, saying they were made after an early morning sweep of an insurgent area 18 miles south of Baghdad.

An intelligence official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry said five Iraqi suspects had been apprehended and confessed to a role in killing Margaret Hassan, the director of CARE International in Iraq. Martin Cronin, first secretary at the British Embassy in Baghdad, said he was not aware of any confessions.

US and Iraqi forces also recovered articles apparently related to Hassan, the British Embassy in Baghdad said. The Iraqi official said they included a purse, a woman’s clothing and CARE documents signed by Hassan.

Hassan, 59, who also held Irish and Iraqi citizenship, was abducted in Baghdad on October 19 on her way to work.