"Kurdish participation is assured and guaranteed," Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, promised at a news conference.
The death toll in attacks around Iraq on Tuesday reflected the targets most frequently chosen by insurgents in the run-up to the elections: Iraqi civilians prominent in the U.S.-installed interim government, American troops regarded by many Iraqis as an occupying force and, most of all, the freshly trained Iraqi soldiers being groomed to take responsibility for their country's security.
Iraqi security forces examine the bullet-riddled vehicle that carried the governor's guards. Haidary's convoy was attacked from several directions.
(Mohammed Khodor -- AP)
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Iraq War Dead
Total number of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq war as announced by the Pentagon yesterday:
1,335
Fatalities
In hostile actions: 1,049
In non-hostile actions: 286
Total fatalities include three civilian employees of the Defense Department.
A full list of casualties is available online at www.washingtonpost.com/nation
SOURCE: Defense Department's www.defenselink.mil/newsThe Washington Post
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_____From Baghdad_____
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Video: Gunmen killed the governor of Baghdad province as his convoy passed through the Hurriyah neighborhood.
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Video: Footage shot by Iraqi insurgents who claimed responsibility for an attack on the outskirts of Baghdad.
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Baghdad's governor, Ali Haidary, was killed by insurgents who swarmed over his convoy from several directions in one of the capital's poorest neighborhoods. Six bodyguards were killed with him. Haidary was a serious, meticulous man who rose from air-conditioning repair merchant to the capital's seat of power through neighborhood, district and city councils established after the fall of Hussein.
Haidary's assassination came hours after a yellow fuel truck exploded at the entrance to an Iraqi commando base near the city center. The gigantic blast damaged 40 houses and destroyed 15 cars. Parents ran to the nearby Husari primary school to gather their children, whose screams filled the air.
"I still don't know how I survived," said Ziyad Ghali, 34, who was driving to a bakery to buy bread for breakfast at the time of the attack. "I cannot forget the sound of the explosion."
Afterward, fresh blood stained the walls and shrapnel from the massive tanker lay everywhere. The mood of the neighborhood swung between anger and depression.
"This was not the first time this place was attacked, but it was the biggest one," Wasfi Hiti said outside his shattered house. "We are really pessimistic. We think there will be more and more destruction."
Al Qaeda in Iraq, the group headed by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian, asserted responsibility for both attacks in separate Internet postings.
Special correspondents Bassam Sebti in Baghdad and Hassan Shammari in Baqubah contributed to this report.
