by Sam Dagher
BAGHDAD - A police chief was gunned down in Baghdad Thursday in an ambush that also killed two of his companions, as a wave of violence swept through Iraq one week before the newly-elected parliament meets to choose a new government.
The attack, the latest incident in 24-hour wave of violence that has left dozens dead, comes after at least 30 bodies, possibly of Iraqi soldiers, were discovered on the Iraq-Syrian border near the restive town of Qaim.
"We received the bodies of three policemen, including Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Obaiss," said a medic at Yarmuk hospital in Baghdad, who did not wish to be identified.
Obaiss was the chief of the Salhiyah police station on the capital`s west side, added the same source.
Witnesses said gunmen aboard vehicles opened fire on his convoy at about 8:00 am (0500 GMT) as it drove through Darwish Square in the Al-Saidiyah neighbourhood.
Government officials were also caught up in the violence when outgoing planning minister Mahdi al-Hafidh escaped an assassination attempt on Wednesday evening in the capital`s upscale Mansur neighbourhood that killed two of his guards and seriously wounded another.
Hafidh was member of the Governing Council installed by the previous US-led occupation immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein`s regime in 2003.
Later as a minister he became the country`s face in dealing with international donors that pledged more than 30 billion dollars to the now-stumbling and slow reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.
Two years on, security remains one of the main obstacles in getting the engine of rebuilding going and this was highlighted on Wednesday when a suicide truck bomber rammed into the back of a hotel in Baghdad used by US contractors wounding 30 of them, four of them seriously.
The attack killed four people, according to the Iraqi defense ministry, and wounded 10 others.
"Terrorists used a large truck rigged as a suicide vehicle bomb in an attack that targeted the Al Sadeer hotel," said an embassy statement.
The carefully-orchestrated attack involved gunmen attacking two guard posts leading to the ministry of agriculture`s parking lot next to the hotel which then opened the way for a garbage truck to go in and detonate its charge against a low concrete and sand barrier at the back of the Sadeer.
The attack left a huge crater in the parking lot and reduced more than 50 vehicles belonging to the ministry into a heap of twisted and smouldering metal. The Sadeer`s windows were all blown out.
US flags were seen hanging from the inside after the blast which engulfed the capital in a huge cloud of black smoke.
The attack was quickly claimed by the Al-Qaeda terror network`s Iraq chapter headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the country`s most wanted fugitive blamed for the worst attacks and hostage executions.
Another militant group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, claimed the kidnapping of two Sudanese allegedly working with US troops, in a video and Internet posting.
Despite the ongoing bloodshed, the election winning Shiite and Kurdish blocs were hammering out the final details of their alliance to form a coalition government when parliament meets on Wednesday.
"Things are moving forward, we will see a principal of understanding signed by the two blocs within a couple of days," Adnan Ali, an aide to the Shiite front-runner for prime minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari.
Muwafaq al-Rubaie, a member of Jaafari`s bloc and current security advisor to the outgoing US-allied government of Iyad Allawi, said security would top the agenda of the new government while sounding confident that life was getting safer for Iraqis.
"We are progressing very well, security is much better than before," he said Tuesday linking the ongoing violence to international terrorism and not the insurgency, which he said was "finished."
"Terrorism is not only an Iraqi phenomenon ... it will take a few years to eradicate this malignant cancer."
Meanwhile, the Italian government grappled with fallout from the killing by US troops last Friday of its top intelligence officer in Iraq, Nicola Calipari, as he escorted released hostage Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad airport.
Italy`s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi demanded "maximum collaboration" from the United States in a joint probe into the friendly fire killing of an Italian agent in Iraq, but played down any notion of a rift between the allies.
He said Washington`s decision to include the Italians in the investigation "demonstrates that our allies have no intention of keeping us from the truth," in an address to the nation`s Senate.
The country keeps 3,000 soldiers in Iraq despite strong public opposition.

03/10/2005 08:56 GMT