No let-up in Iraqi violence

A car bomb exploded in an upscale shopping district of Baghdad today, killing at least six Iraqis and setting fire to an apartment building, in a surge of violence that has left at least 127 people dead since a new government was formed last week. A British soldier died in fighting in southern Iraq.

The skyrocketing attacks are blamed on an insurgency believed largely made up of members of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, who dominated Iraq for decades under Saddam Hussein but were mainly shut out of a partial new Cabinet announced on Thursday.

Today, an aid to incoming Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said he has filled six of the seven Cabinet seats that were left undecided last week. But disputes remained over the key defence ministry portfolio, which is destined for a Sunni, said the aid, Laith Kuba. The new government is due to be sworn in on Tuesday.

On Sunday, at least 36 Iraqis died in a series of insurgent attacks in Iraq, including 25 who were killed when a car bomb ripped through a tent packed with mourners at the funeral of a Kurdish official in the northern city of Tal Afar, the US military said.

Despite the heavy toll, Iraq’s national security adviser said on Sunday 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’s “Late Edition.” “Probably the back of the insurgency has already been broken.”

Two car bombs killed at least nine more Iraqis in Baghdad today, and a US military patrol and a top Iraqi security official narrowly escaped two other bombings in the capital.

In the worst attack, a car bomb exploded in a shopping district in southern Baghdad and set fire to a six-storey apartment. At least three cars parked nearby were also destroyed, said police Lt. Ali Hussein.

As firefighters fought the blaze, thick black smoke and flames rose from the ground floor.

Six civilians were killed and seven wounded in the explosion, which missed a police patrol in the area, said police Lt. Col. Salman Abdul Karim al-Fartosi.

In Baghdad’s eastern Zayona neighbourhood, a car bomb exploded near a passport office, killing three Iraqis, including two policemen, and wounding six, three of them also policemen, said police Lt. Col. Hassan Chalob.

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

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

The British soldier from the 12th Mechanised Brigade died of injures sustained during fighting at al-Amara in southern Iraq, the Ministry of Defence said in London. No further details were released. A total of 87 British troops have been killed in Iraq since the start of the war in 2003.

In northern Iraq, a woman was killed when a car bomb exploded near a US military convoy east of Yarmuk, a hospital official said. Four other civilians were wounded and remained in critical condition at al-Jamhuri Hospital in nearby Mosul, said Dr. Baha al-Din al-Batri.

The US military said it had received reports of an explosion in the area, but had no immediate details.

In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting an Iraqi army patrol wounded two soldiers, the US military said.

The latest violence came the day after a car bomb exploded in Tal Afar, 93 miles east of the Syrian border, killing 25 and wounding more than 50 people gathered for the funeral of a Kurdish Democratic Party official, US and Iraqi officials said.

Deputy provincial Governor Khisru Goran, who also serves as a KDP spokesman in nearby Mosul, said the car ploughed into the funeral tent and exploded, but the US military said it was not a suicide attack.

US and Iraqi forces imposed a curfew in Tal Afar today, and were preventing vehicles from entering or leaving the city, Goran said.

On Sunday, Iraqi militants released a video purporting to show Iraq’s latest foreign hostage: Douglas Wood, 63, an Australian who said he is married to an American and lives in the San Francisco area.

The British Foreign Office also announced three arrests in the abduction of a British aid worker believed slain last year, saying they were made on Sunday morning during a coalition raid in 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. But Martin Cronin, first secretary at the British Embassy in Baghdad, said he was not aware of any confessions.

The intelligence official said the evidence found included women’s clothing and CARE documents signed by Hassan.