Ten killed by Iraq car bomb as Iraqi-US forces forge ahead with crackdown

RAMADI, Iraq (AFP) - A suicide car bomb ripped through a queue of young national guard recruits in western Iraq, killing 10 of them as Iraqi and US forces pursued their crackdown on the country`s insurgency.
And British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, on his second day here, countered widespread scepticism that the war-torn country`s tough-talking prime minister, Iyad Allawi, could stabilise Iraq in time for January elections.
In a rare car bombing in the barren western plains, a suicide attacker rammed his vehicle into a group of people signing up with the national guard at a military base in Anah, some 260 kilometres (160 miles) west of Baghdad.
"Ten people among a group of youngsters signing up with the national guard were killed and 24 others were wounded in the suicide attack, which took place in front of the national guard headquarters," a local police officer told AFP.
September saw the highest number of suicide car bombs, increasingly the weapon of choice among insurgents, since the overthrow of president Saddam Hussein last year.
The attack came as Iraq`s fledgling security apparatus was involved in its largest operations to date, sweeping rebel bastions as part of a government bid to root out the insurgency.
The US military announced overnight a massive push in Babil province, south of Baghdad, in a bid to dismantle insurgent cells there and cut off the western rebel enclave from some of its rear bases.
And in an almost daily occurrence, US warplanes overnight pounded Fallujah, west of the capital, hitting what it described as a meeting of ring leaders loyal to alleged Al-Qaeda operative Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq.
No casualties were reported.
The town has been off-limits to ground troops for months and retaking it is supposed to mark the climax of a bid by Allawi`s government and his US allies to reclaim the country`s lawless hotspots ahead of the election.
In a similar operation, thousands of US-Iraq forces thrust into the rebel stronghold of Samarra last week.
On Wednesday, elite Iraqi units and US troops were continuing their sweep for wanted militants there, while pressing on with emergency reconstruction work in the battle-scarred city.
The re-capture of Samarra, a key insurgent hotbed north of Baghdad, is being held as a model for future efforts to retake the country`s troublespots.
"We must have a suitable atmosphere for the conduct of elections, and the security situation requires exceptional" forces, Allawi told the interim parliament on Tuesday.
Allawi met with Straw, one of his staunchest allies in the bumpy transition process, and told reporters late Tuesday they had agreed on all issues.
He also vowed to do his utmost to help secure the release of Kenneth Bigley, a British engineer held hostage for almost three weeks by Zarqawi`s organisation whose two US colleagues have already been beheaded.
In a fresh display of support for the embattled Iraqi premier, Straw voiced his confidence in Allawi`s ability to stage elections by the end of January.
"I have been very struck in the course of these discussions both by the commitment of everyone that I have met this morning and by the explanations that I have been offered that the elections are going to be held by the 31st of January," he said Wednesday.
In other violence, an official from the Saadia region near Baquba, north of Baghdad, told AFP three Kurdish militiamen and their civilian driver were killed in a drive-by shooting late Tuesday.
The fresh attack against Kurds came a few days after a previously unknown Kurdish group promised bloody retribution against Islamist Arabs targeting Kurds and the clerics abetting them.
A pro-Saddam Kurdish tribal leader who once led a unit of volunteers loyal to the ousted dictator was assassinated on Wednesday in the northern city of Mosul, police said.
A bomb also exploded in the southern city of Basra, killing one civilian, and wounding 10 other people, including four policemen.
In Baghdad`s Sadr City slum, the government and officials from radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr`s movement were engaged in talks aimed at defusing the tense situation which has been prevailing there for months.
Meanwhile, Iraq continued to dominate the US political scene, with President George W. Bush`s reasons for going to war at the heart of the campaign for the November 2 elections.
A few days after a debate between Bush and Democrat presidential hopeful John Kerry, their running mates also squared off on television Tuesday night.
Vice President Dick Cheney insisted he would "recommend exactly the same course of action" if the March 2003 invasion could be planned all over again.
Kerry`s running mate, John Edwards, assailed what he called the administration`s misleading "rosy scenario" amid rising casualties among US troops and said: "It`s not just me that sees the mess in Iraq."