IRAQ: Insurgents launched a suicide car bomb attack on police headquarters in the Iraqi town of Baiji yesterday, killing at least 10 people, and shot dead eight Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint ahead of January 30th polls.
Guerrillas bent on sabotaging the election also fired mortars and shot at polling stations in two other cities, killing a security guard and engaging US troops protecting a school designated for voting.
Witnesses said burnt bodies were scattered in the compound in Baiji, an oil refining town in the Sunni heartland north of Baghdad. A police official said at least 20 people were wounded, mostly police.
Near Baquba, another guerrilla stronghold north-east of the capital, gunmen opened fire at a checkpoint and killed eight soldiers, a National Guard officer said.
A statement from followers of al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, said they had carried out an attack in Baquba and issued a new warning to Iraqi security forces, who are struggling to protect themselves.
"This is the fate of all the agents of the Jews and crusaders," said the statement posted on an Islamist website.
Clashes erupted in the southern town of Musayib after guerrillas opened fire on a polling station. One guard was killed and two were wounded. One insurgent was also wounded, police said.
In the troubled northern city of Mosul, insurgents fired mortars at a school that will serve as a polling station and US troops guarding it returned fire.
The latest violence came amid concerns that guerrillas were stepping up efforts to stir up sectarian tensions ahead of the polls to elect a 275-member national assembly.
Iraqi security forces have borne the brunt of insurgent attacks as the polls approach. Election officials have also been repeatedly attacked and voting centres have been hit.
Gunmen also killed the son of a representative of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the latest victim of a campaign waged by extremists against followers of Iraq's top Shia spiritual leader, officials said. The gunmen opened fire on cleric Habib Salman's son at an internet cafe in the southern town of Numaniyah on Sunday, witnesses said.
Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the US government insist the polls should go ahead, although they concede some areas may be too unsafe for voting.