by Mujahid Mohammed
MOSUL, Iraq - A suicide attacker killed a top local anti-corruption official and two guards in the city of Mosul Sunday after slipping into his offices, as further worldwide protests marked the second anniversary of the Iraq invasion.
Seven other people, including a US soldier and several policemen, were killed in continued violence across the country, while US President George W. Bush launched a vigorous defence of his decision to go to war.
General Walid Kachmoula, head of the local anti-corruption commission, was killed in the Mosul attack, in addition to the suicide bomber and two guards, according to a source at the interior ministry.
The attacker slipped into the commission's offices with a false badge and made his way to the director's office where he blew himself up, according to Mustapha Wahid, a security official.
The northern city of Mosul has been embroiled in violence since insurgents overran police stations in November.
In Baiji, south of Mosul, a Turkish driver travelling in convoy escorted by the US military was killed by small arms fire, said Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Salah.
A policeman was killed and three others wounded in a similar attack in Samarra, further south, said police. Another policeman was shot in Baquba on Saturday, while the bodies of an Iraqi army officer and his cousin were found in the same area, according to police.
In Basra in southern Iraq, a civilian was killed when a roadside bomb exploded in the path of a police patrol, police said.
A US soldier was killed and three others wounded when a roadside bomb hit their patrol Sunday in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, the US military said.
The attacks came as US President George W. Bush defended his decision to order the invasion of Iraq two years ago, as thousands of anti-war protestors around the world marked the anniversary with rallies.
Bush said elections in the violence-torn country have inspired democracy in the region.
"Only the fire of liberty can purge the ideologies of murder by offering hope to those who yearn to live free," he said.
In Malaysia, riot police fired teargas at some 400 anti-war protestors in the capital on Sunday in a bid to get them to disperse after they demonstrated outside the US embassy against the US-led invasion of Iraq.
In Sydney, about 1,000 people took part in a march on Sunday as Australian Prime Minister John Howard restated his government's commitment to the US-led Iraq campaign.
"I believe in the long-run, the Middle East will be a more democratic, a more stable place and people will be given the opportunity to live their lives in freedom," Howard insisted.
Those protests followed anti-war demonstrations held across Europe and North America on Saturday.
In New York, police made dozens of arrests as thousands of demonstrators, some carrying flag-draped coffins, marched in the city.
Tens of thousands rallied in London, carrying pictures of Bush under the title "World's Number One Terrorist" while with other banners warned British Prime Minister Tony Blair that people would not vote for him in a general election expected in May due to his support for the invasion.
Other rallies took place in Rome, Stockholm, Athens, Ankara, Istanbul and Adana.
But people in Iraq itself, worn out by years of wars and an embargo under Saddam Hussein and relentless violence after his fall, hoped January's landmark elections would usher in a government that would take control of the security situation and improve their livelihood.
"I hope things would change, but at the end we have no choice but to tough it out," said Amira Abed, 40, a member of the minority Mandean sect as she gathered with dozens of other disciples of the ancient cult wrapped in white cloth for an annual cleansing ritual on the banks of the Tigris.
The leading Shiite and Kurdish alliances that swept the legislative elections said they are putting the final touches on an agreement to form a coalition government of national unity that would include Sunnis, who failed to win enough seats due to a boycott by members of the community that once ruled Iraq.
They have also sought to find a role for the list headed by outgoing prime minister Iyad Allawi, which came in third place with 40 of the 275 national assembly seats.
"We have completed everything from the presidential council, the premiership to the cabinet posts, we are just putting the final touches to the deal," Jawad al-Maliki, a senior member of the Shiite bloc told AFP.
"We would be happy if they (Allawi's list) join us otherwise we are moving ahead."
Allawi's camp was supposed to answer a proposal for its participation on Sunday, which now looked unlikely.
The Shiites are hoping the deal on the government would be wrapped up in time for parliament to reconvene on March 24 after its inaugural session Wednesday.

03/20/2005 13:28 GMT