Iraq police find 41 bodies; minister attacked

BAGHDAD - Police have found 41 headless or bullet-scarred bodies in the heartland of the country's insurgency and gunmen attacked the planning minister's convoy in Baghdad in a failed assassination bid.

Police said one of Mehdi al-Hafedh's bodyguards was killed but the minister survived the shooting in Baghdad, where a suicide bomber in an explosives-laden garbage truck had earlier killed two policemen.

Al Qaeda's wing in Iraq, led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said it carried out the Baghdad suicide bombing that wounded at least 20 others - part of its relentless campaign to bring down the government and drive out US troops.

There was no immediate claim for the assassination bid on the minister.

The killings of the 41, found in Qaim near the Syrian border and near Latafiya south of Baghdad in what has become known as the "triangle of death", bore the marks of the insurgency. Some were shot in the back of the head, others beheaded.

Mainly Sunni insurgents have kept up a campaign of suicide attacks, car bombings and execution-style killings, denting Iraqi and US officials' hopes that landmark January 30 elections would help stabilise the country.

Their ranks have been boosted by frustration at the US occupation, a growing number of shootings of Iraqi civilians and by abuse of prisoners in US-manned jails.

"Our brother Karim ibn al-Karim bin al-Karim, along with a group of mujahideen, targeted ... what should be called the hotel of the Jews because it is their safe-haven and stronghold," Al Qaeda Organisation for Holy War in Iraq said in a statement posted on an Islamist website.

"The mujahideen opened fire on the police and guards protecting the Jews and when the entrance was clear, the hero ... blew up the infidels," the group said, adding that the attack was timed to avoid harming any Muslim passers-by.

Huge plumes of thick smoke blackened the Baghdad sky as police, ambulances and fire engines rushed to the hotel that is used by the Iraqi police and their foreign instructors.

Hospital officials said two policemen were killed and dozens of others taken to hospital for treatment.

In a separate attack in Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed a US soldier on Wednesday and wounded another, the military said. Since the invasion in March 2003, at least 1505 US soldiers have died in Iraq, 1150 of them killed in action.

In Qaim, 500km west of Baghdad, the bodies of 26 people, including one woman, were found. A doctor said the victims, in civilian clothes, had been shot two days ago.

Fifteen bodies - some shot, others beheaded - were found just south of Baghdad in the Sunni-dominated area now known as the "triangle of death", Iraqi army sources said.

In the southern city of Basra, a roadside bomb killed one policeman, police said.

Insurgents have vowed to push their campaign until US forces and their allies have left.

An Iraqi militant group, Islamic Army in Iraq, posted an Internet video showing two Sudanese hostages urging other drivers in Iraq not to work with occupation forces.

The group said the men, identified as "the criminals" Mohammed Haroun Hamad and Maher Ataya, would be brought before an Islamic committee to decide their fate. They were employed by a Turkish firm as drivers at an airbase north of Baghdad.

"This work is an abandonment of Islam. I advise others to leave any work with the occupying infidel because the hand of justice will reach them wherever they are," the hostages said, reading from a statement.

The insurgents have tried to tap into the frustration many Iraqis feel over what they say is harassment by US soldiers.

Controversy over US tactics in Iraq has been stoked by the fatal shooting of an Italian secret agent during a hostage rescue, and the accidental killing of a Bulgarian soldier.

Italy said on Wednesday US president George W Bush, in a letter to president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, had promised Rome a "fast and thorough" joint investigation into the killing by US troops of the agent who was rescuing a hostage.

The Italian government has rejected an initial US account of how its soldiers fired on agent Nicola Calipari's vehicle as it approached Baghdad's airport on Friday, killing him and wounding newly freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena.

The US military said it had not been informed that Calipari was heading to the airport and his car ignored signals to slow down as it sped towards a checkpoint.

Bulgaria, a US ally which has 430 troops in Iraq, has also accused US troops of accidentally killing a Bulgarian soldier and demanded a full investigation. Bulgaria's army chief of staff, Nikola Kolev, said on Wednesday a lack of communications between Bulgarian and US troops was to blame.

- REUTERS