by Dhia Hamid
SAMARRA, Iraq - Twenty seven people, mostly Iraqi soldiers, were killed in a series of attacks Monday as Bulgaria joined Italy in demanding answers from Washington over the death of one of its soldiers in Iraq.
The worst bloodshed occurred in Balad, north of Baghdad, when a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle at the home of an Iraqi army officer, killing 15 people, including at least two soldiers, and wounding 23, police said.
In recent days, Iraqi commandos and US troops have stepped up operations in the area, a known stronghold of Sunni Arab insurgents, in search of suspects who might lead them to the country's most wanted man, Al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The Jordanian-born militant is blamed for some of the deadliest bombings since the 2003 US-led invasion, as well as executions of foreign hostages.
His group was quick to take credit for a separate attack on an Iraqi army checkpoint further south in Al-Muradiyah, near Baquba, that left five soldiers and one assailant dead. The US military said the operation involved "20 terrorists" aboard five vehicles.
In Baquba itself four people were killed, including two policemen, when a car bomb detonated as officers passed on their way to the checkpoint attack, police said. Another 11 people were wounded.
Meanwhile, an interpreter was killed in Tuz, north of Baghdad, and a rebel was killed by the US army in an operation in Mosul.
Iraq's budding security forces face relentless attacks from insurgents determined to derail US plans to hand over security responsibility and pave the way for a withdrawal of foreign troops two years after the invasion.
A Jordanian businessman was kidnapped Friday in Baghdad, his brother in Amman said, adding that his captors have demanded a 250,000-dollar ransom.
Washington meanwhile characterised as "absurd" allegations by Italian journalist Guiliana Sgrena, freed after a month in captivity in Iraq, that US soldiers deliberately fired at her convoy killing an Italian intelligence officer escorting her.
"It's absurd to make any such suggestion, that our men and women in uniform would deliberately target innocent civilians. That's just absurd," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.
The US government has promised a full investigation.
Nicola Calipari, 50, has been hailed as a national "hero" and "martyr" for his role in saving the Il Manifesto correspondent, who was wounded in the shooting near Baghdad airport.
Mourners applauded as Calipari's coffin was carried into a Rome basilica by pallbearers representing Italy's armed services.
Sgrena wrote in her paper that her captors had warned her that the Americans did not want her to be released.
The military insists that the speeding convoy failed to stop when US soldiers flashed lights and fired repeated warning shots.
The killing has fanned opposition in Italy to the right-wing government's 3,000-strong troop deployment in Iraq, as a second coalition partner of Washington demanded its own explanations over another incident.
Bulgarian Defence Minister Nikolai Svinarov revealed that a serviceman killed on Friday was the victim of "friendly fire" by a US soldier.
Shortly after a meeting between US ambassador James Pardew and President Parvanov and Prime Minister Simeon Saxe Coburg, an embassy official told AFP that "the US embassy has seen a report that this killing could have been the result of fire from American soldiers in the vicinity."
In political developments, representatives of the Shiite and Kurdish blocs, which swept January's election, met again to finalise an agreement on a new governing coalition ahead of the first session of parliament, set for March 16.
"In my opinion, we will reach a final agreement before the session," Hussein Shahristani, a senior member of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance told AFP.
The Shiite list won 140 of the 275 seats in the national assembly but needs a two-thirds majority to approve the government. The Kurdish Alliance won 77.
Shahristani declined to reveal details of the emerging deal, but reports suggested that the Shiites had secured Kurdish support with an undertaking to respect the interim constitution adopted under the US-led occupation last year and its provisions for handling Kurdish claims to the northern oil centre of Kirkuk.
Shahristani said the Shiites had offered a role to outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi but that he had refused.
"We did not offer him a specific position but more the principle of participation," said Jawad al-Maliky of the Dawa party, a religious faction whose leader Ibrahim Jaafari is the Shiites' candidate for prime minister.
"He told us 'I will not take part but I will help you in crossing to the opposite river bank'."
An official of Allawi's Iraqi National Accord party denied that the outgoing premier was prepared to be a junior partner in a new governing coalition.
"He will not accept any post but the premiership in any government he joins," Hani Idris said.

03/07/2005 17:21 GMT