Kidnapping, more deaths rock Iraq

BAGHDAD -- Insurgents who have vowed to disrupt Iraq's parliamentary elections unleashed attacks yesterday and this morning across Iraq, from the kidnapping of a Catholic archbishop and a car bombing at a police station in the north to mortar attacks on polling stations in Basra in the south. At least 20 people were killed.

In Buhruz in central Iraq, gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles attacked a minibus carrying Iraqi soldiers, killing at least seven soldiers and a civilian.

In the northern town of Baiji, explosives packed in a car detonated at the gate of the police station, killing seven police officers, witnesses said. Scenes of anguish, across a street strewn with burned wreckage and human remains, were met with fear that violence would continue before the Jan. 30 vote.

"Damn the elections. They are just a disaster hanging over our head," said the mother of one of the slain Baiji police officers, 20-year-old Nayif Ratif. "What was the fault of my son? He was a very simple and good man. He died because of these elections."

The Syrian Catholic archbishop in the northern city of Mosul was kidnapped in what the Vatican called an "act of terrorism."

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told the Reuters news service that the Holy See had received news of the kidnapping of Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa in Mosul, where insurgents have targeted churches in recent months. The spokesman demanded the immediate release of Casmoussa, 66, who was grabbed by gunmen while walking in front of his church, a priest told the Associated Press.

Christians make up about 3 percent of Iraq's population of 25 million, with sizable communities in Mosul and Baghdad, although a large number of them have immigrated in recent years to the United States, Europe, and Australia. Casmoussa is a member of the Syrian Catholic Church, an ancient rite present mostly in the Middle East.

This morning, a suicide car bomber set off a large blast outside the offices of a leading Shiite political party, killing two other people, police and witnesses said.

The driver of the Chevrolet Caprice slammed his bomb-laden car into a pickup truck that was used to block the road leading to the political party's office and detonated the load of explosives, said police Major Raed Nassab. Two guards were killed, he said.

The attack occurred in the capital's Jadriyah district in front of the offices of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a main contender in the upcoming election. SCIRI had close ties to Iran and is strongly opposed by Sunni Muslim militants.

A day earlier, Casmoussa's kidnapping marked another turn in the tactics of the insurgents, who operate mainly in Sunni Muslim areas of central Iraq.

Guerrillas have posed as Iraqi police officers in carrying out assassinations and abductions, deployed car bombs, fired mortars, staged ambushes and are thought to have infiltrated the security forces. The new forces, sometimes minimally trained and often intimidated by threats, are charged with assuring security at the country's 57,000 polling stations on election day.

The top commander of US forces in Iraq predicted violence during the national election but pledged to do "everything in our power" to ensure the safety of voters. As part of a crackdown on insurgents, American troops arrested more than 100 suspects over the past three days, US officials said.

"The enemy we're fighting is not 10 feet tall, but he's resourceful and he's persistent," General George W. Casey Jr., the US commander, said yesterday. Casey said the number of attacks since December was slightly higher than nine months earlier, when US forces were locked in battle with Sunni Arab fighters in the western town of Fallujah and a Shi'ite Muslim militia in Baghdad and southern Iraq. Of Iraq's 18 provinces, he said, only four are experiencing persistent strife.

"The perception of violence that's created by television is not that way across Iraq," said Casey, whose US troops will number 150,000 during the election campaign.

But as perception and a sense of fear have proved to be some of the insurgents' most formidable tactics, the guerrillas have sought to spread attacks throughout Iraq.

"They want to kill us," said Salama Khafaji, a prominent Shi'ite candidate who survived an assassination attempt Sunday when gunmen dressed as police ambushed her car. "Even the people who work for us are in danger."

"The security situation is getting worse day by day," she said, although she dismissed the attacks as "nothing but the last breaths of a dying body."

The insurgents who attacked the minibus in Buhruz were riding in two cars. About 7 a.m., they ambushed the soldiers outside the provincial television and radio station, said a spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Jassim. The minibus was burned, with corpses still inside hours after the attack. Trails of blood smeared the street nearby.

"I saw the rocket-propelled grenade hit the bus, and I almost lost my mind," said Amer Mansour, 32, the owner of a nearby grocery.

It was a similar scene in Baiji, where the car bomb detonated, hurling the body of one of the police officers more than 100 yards, witnesses said.

"I heard the explosion, and it shattered glass everywhere," said Salih Khamis, a 26-year-old merchant. "I saw cars burned and destroyed, fire, and body parts all over."

A US spokesman said Marines suffered an undisclosed number of casualties in a suicide car bombing in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad. Marines sent to check a suspicious vehicle came under small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenade fire, and the vehicle exploded.

"There were US casualties," First Lieutenant Lyle Gilbert said, but declined to elaborate, citing security. Later, the US command reported that two Marines were killed in action in the province that includes Ramadi, but would not say whether they died in the car bombing.

Elsewhere in Ramadi, a predominantly Sunni city, officials found the bodies of five civilians and an Iraqi soldier. Each bore a handwritten note declaring them collaborators, officials said. Four found together had been shot while two discovered later in the day were beheaded, their blood-soaked bodies left where they died. The notes identified the beheaded victims as Shi'ites.

Shi'ites have been targets of intimidation because they are expected to turn out in large numbers for the election for a 275-member national assembly that will appoint a new government and draft a permanent constitution.

About 60 percent of Iraqis are Shi'ites, and their candidates are expected to win most assembly seats. Many Sunni Arabs fear losing the power they enjoyed under Saddam Hussein, and Sunni clerics have called for a boycott of the vote.

US officials fear that a low turnout by Sunnis may cast doubt on the legitimacy of the new government.

In advance of the voting, insurgents have stepped up suicide bombings and assassinations. Most of the violence is expected in the Sunni province of Anbar, home to Iraq's most determined fighters seeking to topple the interim government and drive out US troops.

US troops detained 81 suspected insurgents and seized several weapons caches in Anbar over the past three days, the military said yesterday. A statement said the crackdown netted mortars, bomb-making equipment, and grenades in the militant stronghold. It gave no other details.

Violence has already affected the exercise in democracy. Some political groups have declined to release names of all their candidates for fear of attacks, and little public campaigning has been possible except in Kurdish areas of the north.

Shi'ite politician Salama Khafaji, who survived an ambush Sunday in central Baghdad by gunmen wearing police uniforms, said she canceled campaigning in the south. "We sent people out today to check roads in the area, but they have reported back that terrorists have set up some road checkpoints," she said. "Generally, I cannot go out and meet people or knock on doors to get out the vote like they do in the West."

A survey in the independent newspaper Al Mada, which predicted that two-thirds of registered voters in Baghdad would cast ballots, may increase hopes for a US-backed interim government. A high turnout could raise the credibility of the polls to elect the national assembly.

Iraqis living abroad began registering to vote yesterday, with dozens arriving at polling stations in 14 countries, including the United States. Officials estimate that 1.2 million Iraqis are eligible to vote overseas.

Material from the Associated Press and Reuters was included in this report.