Iraq's interim government today announced the capture of three men it described as top lieutenants of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi, but insurgents continued efforts to disrupt Sunday's elections, killing at least 10 Iraqis and five U.S. troops in a series of attacks.
The announcement of the captures appeared aimed at encouraging Iraqis to vote in the elections despite warnings by Zarqawi's group and others that anyone participating risks being killed.
Flames engulf a car after a nearby vehicle exploded in Baghdad Friday. Two days before elections, car bombs rattled the Dora neighborhood as insurgents targeted polling sites across the country.
(Khalid Mohammed - AP)
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In continuing insurgent violence in the Iraqi capital, attackers detonated a roadside bomb at about 2 p.m. in southern Baghdad, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding three others, the U.S. military said in a statement. About 15 minutes later, another U.S. soldier was killed by small-arms fire in northern Baghdad, according to military.
Late in the afternoon, three more soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb blew up as they were patrolling in western Baghdad, the military said.
The dead and wounded soldiers belonged to Task Force Baghdad, which is made up largely of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division. No other details of the attacks were immediately released.
The military later said that an OH-58 Kiowa Warrior armed reconnaissance helicopter belonging to Task Force Baghdad had gone down in southwestern Baghdad after nightfall. There was no evidence that hostile fire played any role in the incident, and the condition of the pilots was unknown, the military said in a statement.
In the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi west of the capital, six Iraqi soldiers were killed in ambushes, news services reported.
In addition, four Iraqi civilians were killed when a car bomb exploded next to a police station in southern Baghdad. Shortly afterward, a second car bomb blew up close to a nearby school that authorities plan to use as a voting precinct in Sunday's elections.
The voting is for a 275-seat national assembly that will oversee the drafting of a new Iraqi constitution. Zarqawi, who heads the Iraqi affiliate of the al Qaeda terrorist network, has repeatedly threatened to kill anyone who runs for office or votes in the elections.
In a new warning posted on the Internet today, the group said people could be hit by shelling or other attacks if they go near polling stations.
A statement posted Wednesday by Zarqawi's group, which calls itself "Al Qaeda in the Country of Two Rivers," warned Iraqis, "You must not come near the centers of blasphemy and sin," according to a translation by the Washington-based SITE Institute. The group added, "Having warned you, we are relieved from any responsibility."
According to Qasim Dawood, the Iraqi government's minister of state for national security, Zarqawi's chief of operations in Baghdad was captured Dec. 31 and another top lieutenant was caught west of the capital on Jan. 20. There was no immediate explanation for the delay in announcing the captures.
A government statement said the Baghdad operations chief, identified as Salah Salman Idaaj Matar Luhaybi, alias Abu Sayf, had met Zarqawi four times in December. The other top aide, Ali Hamad Ardani Yasin Isawi, had 40 meetings with Zarqawi in the past three months, the statement said.
The deputy prime minister for national security affairs, Barham Salih, later told a news conference that authorities have arrested a third Zarqawi lieutenant, Inad Mohammed Qais, Reuters news agency reported. Qais was said to be an al Qaeda member serving as a military adviser. It was not immediately clear when or how he was seized.
