IRAQ: Gunmen in Iraq assassinated the US-appointed governor of Mosul yesterday, and another 11 people were killed by a suicide car bomber in Baghdad.
Mr Youssef Kashmola was driving from the prosperous northern city of Mosul towards Baghdad when his convoy of cars was attacked.
Around 60 miles into the journey gunmen threw a grenade and opened fire. The governor was killed in the shoot-out.
"He was on his way to Baghdad with a security escort of four cars when the attackers in another car pulled up beside his vehicle, threw a grenade and then shot at his car," an interior ministry source said.
The assasination followed a suicide bombing which shook the centre of Baghdad and sent a pall of thick black smoke rising above the US and British headquarters in the city, known as the Green Zone. At least 40 people, including an American soldier, were injured. It was the first large-scale bombing in Baghdad since the handover of power last month and served as a reminder that the the violent insurgency is not at an end.
Every other major entrance to the Green Zone has been attacked by suicide bombers, and the gate hit yesterday, which is frequently crowded with contractors and foreign journalists, may have seemed a likely target.
Witnesses described how the bomber, driving a white pick-up, calmly joined a queue of cars waiting to pass through a checkpoint. As his car reached the barrier he detonated approximately 450kg of explosives packed into the vehicle.
Four of the dead were Iraqi national guardsmen manning the checkpoint, which is only a few hundred metres from the tightly-secured new British embassy. The blast left a crater two metres wide and a metre deep.
Five burnt-out cars lay by a half-destroyed concrete blast wall. In the shattered windscreen of one car was embedded a sign that read: "Stop. Show identification." Most offices were closed for a public holiday marking the anniversary of the nationalist coup that toppled the British-installed monarchy in 1958.
Two hours after the blast Mr Iyad Allawi, the new prime minister, was taken to the site and studied the wreckage.
"This is yet another crime committed against Iraqi innocents," he said. The blast might have been a response to the arrests of hundreds of criminals, he said, including at least two "extremists" in recent days.
Earlier in the day another official was murdered. Mr Sabir Karim, a director general at the industry ministry and head of its audit department, was shot by a gunman using a silencer as he left his home in the Sadyia district of Baghdad.
Mr Allawi is due to make an announcement today on national security. Government officials have said they will re-impose the death penalty, and declare curfews and temporary states of emergency when necessary, but at the same time offer an amnesty to guerrilla fighters.
Meanwhile, the Philippines' capitulation to hostage-taking Islamic militants in Iraq yesterday was criticised by foreign governments and domestic media as other states with troops there vowed not to pull them out.
Manila said it had begun preparations to withdraw its 50 troops in Iraq in line with the demands of kidnappers who threatened to behead hostage Mr Angelo de la Cruz unless Philippine troops left by July 20th, a month ahead of schedule.
Bulgaria said it would not withdraw its 470 troops in Iraq despite the hostage crisis, which saw one of its nationals executed on Tuesday while another is threatened with death.
A Saudi company said last night it would pull out of Iraq to meet the demands of kidnappers holding an Egyptian truck driver hostage.
"We are withdrawing from Iraq immediately to save the life of our driver Mr (Mohammed) Gharabawi," the owner of Faisal al-Neheit Transport Company said.