Iraqi fighters attacked two political party offices and a government building Saturday, killing three people and injuring two.
Also Saturday, a car bombing injured a Kurdish government official and killed one of his bodyguards in the northern city of Irbil, according to police and a spokesman for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
Witnesses identified the wounded official as Mahmoud Mohammed, the Kurdistan Democratic Party's minister of culture. At least five of Mohammed's bodyguards were also injured in the explosion.
Attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades at the offices of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said party member Maitham Ibrahim. Three party members died and two were wounded, hospital officials said, according to The AP.
Four Iraqis attacked the blue-domed government building in Baqouba, said Maj. Neal O'Brien of the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division. Armed guards returned fire and killed the four, O'Brien said. One of the attackers wore an explosive suicide vest, he said.
In a third attack in the city the same morning, gunmen stormed the offices of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's political party, the Iraq National Accord, setting off an explosion before fleeing, witnesses said. No one was hurt.
Elsewhere, a U.S. soldier has died of wounds sustained in an attack on a U.S. patrol in central Baghdad, the U.S. military said Saturday.
These incidents came as Iraq's Interior Minister Falah al-Naqib urged Iraqis to report potential "insurgent" activity to state security forces.
"It is the responsibility of every Iraqi to cooperate with us to remove this cancer from our midst," he said. "You cannot expect the police to do it on their own." (Albawaba.com)
© 2004 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
