Iraqi Car Bomb Kills 10; Pipeline Torched; More Prisoner Abuse Reported

BAGHDAD, July 16 (AFP) - At least 10 people died in a second major car bombing in 24 hours, as Iraq`s Prime Minister Iyad Allawi unveiled a new spy unit to fight insurgents and reports emerged of more Iraqi prisoner abuse by US troops.
The head of security at Iraq`s foreign ministry was killed and two other officials wounded when gunmen attacked their convoy traveling north on the road from Baghdad to Kirkuk, about 130 kilometers (78 miles) north of Baghdad.
And insurgents torched the main pipeline from Iraq`s northern oil fields, halting exports through the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan in a new blow to the caretaker government`s efforts to revive the country`s main source of revenue.
Violence continued in Baghdad as series of blasts rocked the capital`s trouble-prone Haifa Street, prompting US vehicles and soldiers to block off the surrounding area.
Amid the unrest, fresh hope emerged for a Philippine hostage as his captors extended until the end of July a deadline for Manila to withdraw its forces from Iraq or see him beheaded.
There was no news on a Bulgarian or an Egyptian also held captive, however.
In the wake of Thursday`s violence, Allawi announced a new intelligence outfit, conjuring memories of the sinister Mukhabarat of Saddam Hussein`s former regime.
"We are determined to eliminate (terror groups) by establishing an internal intelligence unit called a General Security Directorate, GSD, that will annihilate those terrorist groups," the prime minister told a news conference.
"Those people who label terrorists as resistance fighters are misleading themselves," declared Allawi. "They are killing innocents by taking advantage of the youth of the government and its institutions."
In the latest attack Thursday, 10 people were killed, including three policemen, and 27 injured when a car bomb exploded outside a police station in Haditha, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) west of Baghdad on the road to Syria.
The Haditha blast followed a suicide bombing on Wednesday that killed 10 people and wounded 40 outside Iraq`s government`s compound in Baghdad.
In Washington, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said new cases of alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers had been uncovered, three months after the scandal was triggered by broadcast images of detainees being sexually humiliated at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
"We`re still uncovering, as late as this morning, other incidents, other cases that will be promptly investigated by the Department of Defense," Senator John Warner said after his panel had been briefed by Pentagon officials in a closed-door meeting.
The Virginia Republican said the new allegations involved possible violations of the Geneva Convention and Defense Department rules and regulations on treatment of prisoners.
Meanwhile, the hostage-takers threatening to decapitate Philippine truck driver Angelo de la Cruz extended until the end of July their deadline for Manila to withdraw its forces from Iraq.
Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite television broadcast footage of the 46-year-old hostage assuring his family he would be freed soon and imploring the Manila government to speed up the withdrawal.
De la Cruz was abducted last week by a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq - Khalid Ibn al-Walid Brigade.
"The hostage will be freed after the withdrawal of the last Philippine soldier from Iraq, provided it takes place before the end of the month," said the statement read by Al-Jazeera.
The Philippines has already begun to pull its tiny military contingent from the country in a dramatic change in policy made despite protests from Baghdad and Washington.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan scolded the Philippines.
"It`s disappointing to see a decision that sends the wrong signal to terrorists," he said.
"You cannot negotiate with terrorists or make a separate peace with terrorists. And we understand that they have made the decision to withdraw their 51 troops ahead of schedule," he said.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed similar sentiments, saying that ceding to kidnappers only encourages them.
"This kind of action cannot be allowed to succeed anywhere in the 21st century, above all not Iraq," he said.
The Iraqi prime minister said, "I have spoken to the Philippine President (Gloria Arroyo) to reconsider the issue of withdrawing ... forces and I hope they will listen because we cannot give up to terrorism."
In other developments, Bulgaria conceded there was little hope of saving the life of one of its citizens held hostage in Iraq after the beheading earlier in the week of another Bulgarian captive.
"With every hour that passes the situation becomes increasingly serious and the probability that he will be saved increasingly fades," Foreign Minister Solomon Passi told Sofia television.
Passi said his government was in contact with authorities in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul to determine whether a headless body found there was that of the executed hostage.
And a militant group linked to al-Qaeda and led by Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for Wednesday`s assassination of the governor of Mosul and two of his bodyguards, shot and killed as they traveled to Baghdad.