Roadside bomb kills five in Iraq

A roadside bomb aimed at a US military convoy in Iraq’s Triangle of Death hit a minibus today, killing five Iraqis and wounding six, police said.

The US command announced that it is stepping up counter-insurgency training for newly arrived officers to give them the latest tactics about protecting patrols from such attacks.

At least 93 American service members died during October, making it the fourth deadliest month for the troops in the Iraq war. Many of the victims were killed by homemade bombs that the Pentagon has confirmed are becoming more powerful and technologically sophisticated.

The deaths raised to at least 2,026 the number of members of the US military who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The roadside bomb targeting an American military patrol exploded on a two-lane highway in Jurf al Naddaf, a town just south of Baghdad, said police Lieutenant Colonel Sabah Hussein.

The blast hit a private minibus that was travelling behind the convoy, killing five Iraqis and wounding six, Hussein said.

The bomb had been hidden beneath the surface of the highway, but there was little traffic, given the early hour. The blast occurred in a section of Iraq south of Baghdad known as the Triangle of Death because of its frequent attacks by Sunni-led insurgents.

Lieutenant Colonel Steve Boylan, the US military spokesman in Baghdad, confirmed today that the US command will soon step up its counter-insurgency training by opening the new school at Taji, an air base 12 miles north of Baghdad.

The New York Times reported that the school will be for newly arrived Army and Marine officers and allow field commanders to give them the latest tactics on issues such as finding and destroying roadside bombs and dealing with Iraq’s many insurgent factions.

The Times said General George Casey Jr., the top American commander in Iraq, had ordered the formation of the school because of increasingly flexible and deadly attacks by insurgents.

Soldiers and marines already receive some counter-insurgency instruction in the US before leaving for Iraq, but the Times said some senior US commanders have expressed concern that the instruction has been uneven and lags behind the fast-changing tactics that insurgents use in Iraq.

The academy will give intensive one-week courses, the report said.

In another development, the US military said today its forces raided the homes of two suspected al Qaida insurgents in southern Baghdad overnight and detained them. It said the men were carrying passports from Yemen, were on a reconnaissance mission in the capital and may have been involved in planning car bomb attacks.

The US command also said its soldiers detained 12 suspected insurgents after a roadside bomb and small-arms fire attack against coalition forces early yesterday in eastern Baghdad.

Searching a nearby cement factory, US and Iraqi forces found more than 65 AK-47 rifles, 120 AK-47 magazines, three machine guns and three ammunition drums, the military said.

“What could’ve been an unfortunate, negative situation turned out positive,” said Lieutenant Colonel Edward Chesney, a US team commander.

Yesterday, Iraq’s government blamed a Syria-based Moroccan for the triple car bomb attack that killed dozens of people north of Baghdad in the city of Balad.

Iraqi Defence Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi also urged Arab governments to demand that Syria curb the movement of foreign fighters into this country.

The government identified the Moroccan as Muhsen Khayber who also is sought in his homeland for the terror bombings in Casablanca in May 2003.

In a statement, Iraqi officials alleged that Khayber masterminded the September 29 attack in which three vehicles exploded almost simultaneously in Balad, killing at least 60 people.

Iraqi officials did not cite any evidence to link Khayber to the Balad attacks but have long maintained that foreign Islamic extremists play a major role in the wave of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Iraqis in recent months.

Spanish authorities, however, believe Khayber was part of a network linked to Ansar al-Islam, an Islamic extremist group based in northern Iraq, which recruited foreign fighters to go to Iraq to battle the US-led coalition.

The Iraqi statement said Khayber moved last year to Syria “where he helped organise terrorist cells for foreign terrorists” who were sent to neighbouring Iraq. Arab media said Khayber was arrested in Syria in May 2004 and handed over to the Moroccans.

Efforts to reach Moroccan authorities to confirm the report were unsuccessful because business offices had closed for the breaking of the Ramadan fast.

However, a Moroccan analyst who attended high school with Khayber, Abdellah Rami, said he doubted Khayber was in custody because he still sends money to his two wives in the Moroccan city of Larache, where he was born in 1970. He also said Khayber was a vehement critic of Shiites, the main victims of the Balad attacks.

“Khayber used to support the killings of Shiites in Pakistan or the killing of Christians, even before September 11,” Rami said. “He became very animated in the discussions, very fanatic.”

Syria has denied any support for Iraqi insurgent groups and insists that it is trying to control the porous border.