- BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -ó
Insurgents attacked two U.S. convoys less than a mile apart in Baghdad
on Sunday, and American soldiers in one incident opened fire, killing one
Iraqi driving nearby and wounding six others, witnesses and hospital officials
said.
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- The violence came as Iraqi security officials investigated
one of the most sophisticated guerrilla attacks yet - a bold daylight assault
Saturday by dozens of fighters on a police station in Fallujah, west of
Baghdad, in which 25 people were killed, most of them policemen.
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- A U.S. military police officer was among more than 30
people wounded, said Col. William Darley, a military spokesman.
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- Also Sunday, Iraqi police arrested No. 41 on the American
military's most-wanted list, Baath Party official Mohammed Zimam Abdul-Razaq.
He was the party's regional chairman in the northern provinces of Nineveh
and Tamim, which include the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
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- Police caught Mr. Abdul-Razaq at one of his homes in
western Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said. He was the four of spades
in the military's "deck of cards" of top fugitives - leaving
10 still at large from the most-wanted list of 55.
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- In Qaim, near the Syrian border about 200 miles northwest
of Baghdad, U.S. troops backed by tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles clashed
Sunday with Iraqi gunmen. There were no reports of casualties. Residents
said gunmen attacked the Americans in retaliation for a U.S. operation
against suspected smugglers the day before.
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- Also on Sunday, the U.S. military said an 82nd Airborne
Division paratrooper died when his vehicle overturned near Baghdad a day
earlier. The soldier's name was not released.
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- There were conflicting reports who may have been behind
the Fallujah attacks.
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- Police claimed foreigners - Arabs or Iranians - were
involved and that two of four attackers killed in the battle had Lebanese
identification papers. Rumors spread in the city that an Iraqi Shiite Muslim
militia with links to Iran, the Badr Brigade, was to blame.
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- But a U.S. officer in Baghdad said the attack's sophistication
pointed to former members of Saddam Hussein's military.
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- The assault involved simultaneous attacks: One group
of gunmen overran the police station, freeing dozens of prisoners being
held there, while a second team pinned down Iraqi security forces at a
nearby compound with a half-hour barrage of fire to prevent them from helping
the policemen.
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- On Sunday, a roadside bomb went off as a U.S. military
patrol passed by in western Baghdad, causing no injuries. The American
soldiers opened fire wildly in response, shooting three vehicles, witnesses
said. One Iraqi was killed and six wounded, hospital officials said.
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- "I was driving near the U.S. convoy when I heard
an explosion. Then the U.S. soldiers randomly opened fire," said Kadhum
Salih, a teacher who was wounded in the left hand.
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- About a half-mile away, gunmen attacked a U.S. convoy
on a highway at about the same time, setting one of the vehicles ablaze.
Witnesses said U.S. soldiers pulled three wounded people from the stricken
SUV.
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- The convoy was made up of a military Humvee and two sport
utility vehicles, the sort used by American civilians and officials in
Iraq. The SUV was heavily burned, its hood pockmarked with bullet holes.
The U.S. command had no reports of casualties.
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- Insurgents have launched a series of bloody attacks in
the past week, thought to be part of an escalation aimed at wrecking U.S.
plans to transfer power to the Iraqis on June 30.
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- The handover has hit political storms as well, with the
United States under heavy pressure to change its method for picking a new
government. U.S. administrators want local councils to choose a legislature,
which in turn would name a government to rule until elections in 2005.
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- A prominent Kurdish leader said Saturday he expects the
U.S.-picked Iraqi Governing Council to take power June 30 if elections
for a legislature cannot be arranged.
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- "We think that elections are the best way to express
the opinions of the Iraqi people," council member Jalal Talabani said.
"We expect the Governing Council to receive sovereignty if no provisional
government is established or no elections are held."
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- Mr. Talabani spoke after meeting with Iraq's top Shiite
Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who holds enormous
influence among Iraq's Shiite majority and has demanded elections.
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- In response, a U.N. mission is in Iraq to explore whether
elections were possible. A spokesman for the U.N. team sided with the United
States and said it was unlikely a vote could be organized by June 6.
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- But the head of the team, Lakhdar Brahimi, said major
changes were needed in the U.S. plan for picking a government to satisfy
Iraqi leaders. American officials say they're open to changes in the formula,
which calls for regional caucuses, but have not said how far they're willing
to go.
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- When it transfers sovereignty, the United States wants
to give Iraqi security forces greater responsibility in battling the insurgency.
But Saturday's attack in Fallujah raised questions about how prepared Iraqis
are to face the guerrillas, who have kept up attacks despite the Dec. 13
arrest of Saddam.
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- The attack occurred at the end of a bloody week in which
about 100 people were killed in suicide bombings at a police station in
Iskandariyah and an army recruiting center in Baghdad. Those attacks and
the Fallujah raid suggest an insurgent campaign against key institutions
of the U.S.-backed Iraqi administration.
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