Suicide car bombing near party offices of Iraqi PM kills four

BAGHDAD, Jan 3 (AFP) - A suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a checkpoint near the Baghdad offices of Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's political party on Monday, killing four people and wounding 24, in an attack claimed by an Al-Qaeda-linked group.
The blast was followed hours later by a second car bombing 500 metres away that destroyed a vehicle belonging to the US-based Kroll security firm that was left smoldering in flames.
There were casualties from the blast at a checkpoint entrance to the Green Zone, the citadel-like headquarters of the Iraqi government and US embassy, an embassy spokesperson said. But Kroll refused to comment on the status of those hurt in the bombing.
Attacks against political figures and Iraq's security forces have been escalating in the run-up to the January 30 elections.
The interior ministry put the latest toll from the Monday morning attack on Allawi's party headquarters at four killed and 24 wounded, two of them said by hospital officials to be policemen.
An explosives-packed car hurtled through a roundabout at 9:45 am (0645 GMT), where two police cars manned a checkpoint sealing off Zaitoun street, where the offices of Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party are located, an interior ministry official said.
The attacker rammed his vehicle through a first checkpoint, running over a policeman and "at the second checkpoint, he blew himself up," said policeman Jassem Mohamed, 21, his shirt covered in blood.
Policemen fired shots in the air in the moments after the blast and US military vehicles sealed off surrounding roads.
Besides hosting Allawi's party offices, the street leads to the fortress-like Green Zone and houses Iraqi security offices.
The Al-Qaeda linked Ansar al-Sunna group claimed responsibility in an Internet statement for the bombing.
"One of the lions of Islam managed to carry out an heroic martyr operation against a large meeting of members of the servile police charged with protecting the headquarters of the National Accord of the apostate Iyad Allawi," read the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified.
In the afternoon, a car bomb exploded by another entrance to the Green Zone, the US embassy said.
The car bomb hit the Kroll employee's sports utility vehicle about 500 metres from the entrance to the heavily guarded area. Firemen were dousing the burning vehicle late Monday afternoon.
The explosion occurred by checkpoint 12, the same entrance to the Green Zone where Iraqi Shiite politician Ezzedine Salim was killed in a car bombing on May 17, the month he served as head of the defunct US-sponsored Governing Council.
That assassination was claimed by Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was named the head of the Al-Qaeda terror group in Iraq last week.
The attacks on pro-US and Iraqi government locations came after a car bombing last Monday on Iraqi Shiite leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim's Baghdad offices that left 13 people dead.
On Sunday, 19 people were killed in a suicide attack against the Iraqi national guard and more than a dozen other people lost their lives in another bloody day of attacks across Iraq.
Also Monday, a series of loud explosions echoed from Baghdad's insurgent stronghold of Haifa street, where fighting had erupted, an interior ministry official said.
No further details were available.
At Yarmuk hospital, where many of the victims were rushed from the morning attack, Iraqi special forces in green combat uniforms and red berets, fired shots in the air and shouted at reporters trying to get inside.
Ambulances rushed into the hospital courtyard unloading victims on stretchers as policemen who had been at the scene of the blast stood around in a daze.

01/03/2005 17:48 GMT - AFP