IRAQ: Suicide bombers struck across Iraq yesterday, with blasts near the northern city of Kirkuk killing at least 19 people and wounding dozens. This is the latest in a series of suicide attacks that have killed hundreds since late April.
A mortar attack west of Baghdad killed three more Iraqis, the US military said.
At least five car bombs exploded across Iraq yesterday. Four attacks were in or near the northern town of Hawija, close to the strategic oil city of Kirkuk.
One suicide bomber blew up his car near a US base, another beside an Iraqi army checkpoint and a third close to a market. A fourth car bomb struck a checkpoint in the town of Abasi, near Hawija. Nineteen people were killed and 38 wounded in the four attacks, according to Maj Gen Anwar Mohammed Amin, the Iraqi army commander in Kirkuk.
In Baghdad, a car bomb detonated beside a police patrol, wounding 28 people, including two policemen, police said.
Near Falluja, west of Baghdad, police found the body of a man shot in the head. A message scrawled on his clothing said that he had been killed for working with the Americans.
Insurgents also hit a US base between Baghdad and Falluja with mortars, killing three Iraqi contractors and wounding 13, the US military said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Iraq's government has backed away from suggestions that Saddam Hussein would be tried within weeks, admitting it was up to an independent special tribunal to decide when he appears in court.
Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, and the prime minister's spokesman, Laith Kubba, had said last week that Saddam could go on trial within two months. These were popular announcements apparently designed to show Iraqis that progress was being made in bringing him to justice.
The special tribunal, set up in 2003 to try senior members of the former regime, issued a statement saying no date had been set. Mr Kubba conceded yesterday that any decision was up to the tribunal. A high-profile conviction could help build popular support for the government before a mid-December election. - (Reuters)