A bomb blast killed three bodyguards in the office of one of Iraq's main Shia Muslim groups yesterday, a spokesman for the group said, as ethnic violence flared between Kurds and Turkmen in the north.
The blast in the holy Shia city of Najaf and the ethnic clashes around Kirkuk stoked tensions in a country already grappling with lawlessness and a guerrilla insurgency.
In Baghdad, one of the main bridges over the Tigris river was closed after explosives were found planted there, Iraqi police said. The bridge is one of the main routes to the headquarters of the US-led administration.
The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which is one of the main Shia parties in Iraq and is represented on the US-backed Governing Council, said it was the target of the bomb attack in Najaf.
Its spokesman said Ayatollah Mohammed Saeed al-Hakim, uncle of SCIRI leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, suffered very light wounds to the neck, and 10 other people were wounded in the blast near the sacred Imam Ali mosque. "There was a strange man in the building outside his office. When someone went to see who it was, a bomb went off. Three security guards were killed," he said.
Tensions have risen between rival Shia groups in Najaf since the US-led war ousted Saddam Hussein in April. Power struggles in the city play a key role in determining the political future of Iraq, which is majority Shia.
SCIRI has been criticised by some Iraqi Shias for co-operating with the United States and accepting a seat on the Governing Council. Moqtada al Sadr, a rival Shia leader, has condemned the US occupation and refused to join the council.
In northern Iraq, fighting between Kurds and Turkmen has claimed at least 12 lives since Friday, local officials said.
The violence began on Friday in Tuz Khurmatu, south of Kirkuk. The mayor of Tuz Khurmatu said nine people were killed after Turkmen accused Kurds of defiling a Shia shrine.
On Saturday, officials said, three people were killed in clashes in Kirkuk, an ethnically divided city at the heart of Iraq's richest oil reserves.
Both Kurds and Turkmen recount persecution in Kirkuk during the rule of Saddam Hussein, when many were expelled from the city and replaced with Arabs from other parts of the country in a bid to change Kirkuk's ethnic make-up.
The Turkmen, whose presence in Iraq dates back to Ottoman rule, say they now face oppression by the Kurds, and accuse the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of inciting ethnic violence.
In southern Iraq, three British soldiers were killed in the city of Basra on Saturday. The British military said two vehicles were ambushed by gunmen shooting from a truck.
Ten British soldiers have been killed in action since Washington declared major combat over on May 1st. In the same period, 64 US soldiers have been killed in guerrilla attacks, mostly in Saddam's main strongholds in central Iraq.
Charles Heatly, a spokesman for the US-led administration, said yesterday that one militant group that may have been involved was Ansar al-Islam, which was based in Kurdish northern Iraq before the war.
"We have credible and repeated information about Ansar al-Islam, which is affiliated to the al-Qaeda network," he told a news conference.
- (Reuters)