Steve Negus
Financial Times
April 15 2005
Guerrillas launched a series of strikes against Iraqi police and other targets yesterday, killing more than 24 people on the
second day of a surge in deadly attacks.
In the bloodiest attack, two car bombs in the south Baghdad district of al-Jadriya killed at least 18 Iraqis, including one
policeman.
An internet statement in the name of al-Qaeda in Iraq, affiliated with Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed
responsibility for the blasts, which it said were suicide attacks against a passing police convoy and guards at a nearby interior
ministry facility.
Most victims, however, appeared to be either civilian motorists or roadside workers, in a possible indication of what some US
military officials say is a decline in the training of suicide bombers.
US forces discovered and detonated a third car bomb in the area, possibly rigged to hit soldiers and police responding to the
first two bombs.
The radical Ansar al-Sunna group has claimed that a similar trap, consisting of several bombs buried under a decoy near an oil
pipeline, was responsible for killing 12 Iraqi police near the northern city of Kirkuk on Wednesday.
At least 40 Iraqis have been reported killed in insurgent vehicle bombings, drive-by shootings and ambushes during the past
two days, although casualty counts from some of the incidents differ. At least six died in shootings and assassinations yesterday.
US and Iraqi officials claim there has been a fall in guerrilla attacks since January's elections, and further suggest that many
former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling Ba'ath party now believe that they have little chance of ousting Iraq's current
US-backed government.
Mr Zarqawi's followers, however, remain active and have claimed responsibility for several high-profile operations, including an
assault this month on the US-run Abu Ghraib prison, in what may be an attempt to score a propaganda victory to revive the
insurgency's fortunes.
Some US and Iraqi officials say that Mr Zarqawi's network may also feel pressure to keep up the number of attacks to assure
donors based outside Iraq, who may include both militant Islamists and former Ba'athists, that it remains effective.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Citation:
Steve Negus, "Surge in Iraqi violence kills 24", Financial Times, April 15 2005. Original URL: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c4ff667e-ad4b-11d9-ad92-00000e2511c8.html