IRAQ: AL QAEDA ALLY CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ASSASSINATION OF GOVERNOR OF BAGHDAD
Record ID:
647464
IRAQ: AL QAEDA ALLY CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ASSASSINATION OF GOVERNOR OF BAGHDAD
- Title: IRAQ: AL QAEDA ALLY CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ASSASSINATION OF GOVERNOR OF BAGHDAD
- Date: 4th January 2005
- Summary: (W3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JANUARY 4, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF TWO VEHICLE CONVOY OF ASSASSINATED GOVERNOR ALI AL-HAIDRI 0.10 2. CLOSE-UP OF GOVERNOR'S VEHICLE WITH SMASHED WINDOWS 0.17 3. CLOSE OF BLOOD AND PIECES OF GLASS ON SEATS OF VEHICLE 0.23 4. CLOSE OF BLOOD ON STREET 0.29 5. WIDE OF BULLET-RIDDLED VEHICLE OF GOVERNOR WITH SMASHED WINDOWS 0.32 6. CLOSE OF BACK OF VEHICLE WITH BULLET HOLES 0.36 (W3) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FILE - 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 7. SCU BAGHDAD GOVERNOR ALI AL-HAIDRI GIVING NEWS CONFERENCE 0.58 (U5) WEBSITE (JANUARY 4, 2005) 8. VARIOUS OF EXTRACTS FROM WEBSITE WITH MESSAGE REGARDING ASSASSINATION OF BAGHDAD GOVERNOR ALI AL-HAIDRI 1.10 (W4) BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JANUARY 4, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF UMM AL-QURA MOSQUE, HEADQUARTERS OF IRAQ'S MUSLIM CLERICS ASSOCIATION 1.18 10. WIDE OF SIGN FOR ASSOCIATION OF MUSLIM SCHOLARS 1.24 11. WIDE OF CONFERENCE INSIDE MOSQUE 1.28 12. WIDE OF ADNAN MOHAMMED SALMAN AL-DULEIMI, HEAD OF THE SUNNI RELIGIOUS AWQAF (ENDOWMENTS) DEPARTMENT, AT PODIUM 1.34 13. WIDE OF EXTERIOR OF MOSQUE 1.40 14. SLV PEOPLE POINTING TO WATER WHERE SHELLS LANDED 1.45 15. WIDE OF WATER 1.50 16. SLV MAN TALKING ON RADIO AND RUNNING 1.54 17. WIDE OF PEOPLE OUTSIDE MOSQUE 2.00 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 19th January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ/ WEBSITE
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA7MMODXS0IE2M895858ZEQ18N
- Story Text: Al Qaeda ally claims assassination of governor of Baghdad and suicide
truck bombing.
Gunmen killed Baghdad's governor in Iraq's highest-profile
assassination for eight months and a suicide bomber killed 11 people on
Tuesday (January 4) in an escalating campaign to wreck the January 30
election.
The shooting of Governor Ali al-Haidri in a roadside ambush showed the
insurgents' power to strike at the heart of the governing class, raising fresh
doubts as to whether security forces can protect politicians and voters as the
ballot draws near.
A group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, behind most of the
bloodiest attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, claimed responsibility
for the assassination, saying its fighters had struck down a "tyrant and
American agent".
Insurgents also killed three U.S. soldiers in a roadside bomb attack in
Baghdad; another soldier in a bomb blast in Balad north of the capital; and a
U.S. Marine in western Iraq.
The attacks brought the number of U.S. military and Pentagon personnel
killed in action since the start of the war in 2003 to 1,053. Including
non-combat deaths the toll is 1,338.
Haidri and one of his bodyguards were killed when gunmen opened fire on
his car in western Baghdad, police sources said. He was the most senior
official assassinated in the city since the head of the Governing Council was
killed last May.
Haidri had survived a previous assassination attempt in September.
Insurgents have repeatedly attacked Iraqi officials as well as members
of the country's fledgling security forces, accusing them of collaborating
with foreign occupiers.
The assassination took place hours after a suicide bomber rammed a fuel
truck into a checkpoint near Baghdad's Green Zone, a sprawling compound
housing the Iraqi government and the U.S. and British embassies. The vehicle
went up in a giant fireball that rocked the capital.
The bombing killed eight police commandos and three civilians and
wounded 58 people, bringing fresh scenes of bloodshed to Baghdad's streets a
day after 17 security men died in a string of ambushes and explosions across
the country.
The attacks were the latest in a drive by Sunni insurgents trying to
force out U.S.-led forces, cripple the Washington-backed interim government
and scare voters away from the polls. Iraqi leaders say insurgents also want
to provoke sectarian civil war.
The choice of targets again showed the vulnerability of Iraq's new
security branches, which have gained a reputation for ineffectiveness even as
they undergo training to take over from U.S.-led forces.
The latest attacks have been concentrated in Baghdad and the restive
Sunni heartland of northern Iraq.
Bloodshed has been heaviest in areas dominated by Saddam's
once-privileged Sunni minority, which now faces the prospect of elections
cementing the new-found political power of the long-oppressed Shi'ite
majority.
Osama bin Laden and Islamist groups have pledged to wreck the elections
as part of a holy war.
U.S. and Iraqi officials had said they expected an increase in
pre-election assaults by insurgents, but they pledged to do everything
possible to safeguard what they say will be the country's first free elections
since the 1950s.
Two shells landed in the grounds of the Umm al-Qura Mosque, the
headquarters of the influential Muslim Clerics' Association, which has called
on Iraqis to boycott the poll because of U.S.-led attacks on Sunni areas where
an insurgency is raging. No-one was hurt.
Sunni Muslim clerics and politicians were meeting to discuss the
January 30 election, which they want postponed.
The head of the Sunni religious endowments department, Adnan Mohammed
Salman Al-Duleimi, told the meeting that holding the elections in the current
atmosphere would not benefit Iraq because of the deteriorating security
situation and because many voters have not received election forms.
One shell exploded and the other fell harmlessly into a fountain
outside the main building where Sunni figures were having lunch.
The Muslim Clerics' Association has always said it will not field
candidates in any election while foreign troops remain on Iraqi soil and in
November called on Iraqis not to cast ballots at all after U.S.-led forces
launched a major attack on the restive Sunni city of Falluja.
Many Sunni groups, including a party led by Iraqi elder statesman Adnan
Pachachi, have said they want the poll postponed because residents of the
Sunni north and west will be too frightened to vote because of violence and
intimidation.
If Sunnis fail to vote, election results could be skewed in favour of
the long-oppressed Shi'ite majority, which is keen to hold a poll expected to
cement their increased political power following the overthrow of Saddam
Hussein.
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