| Militants detonate five bombs in Baghdad The less time remains before the parliamentary elections in Iraq scheduled for January 30, the more daring the militants' antics become. Yesterday, Baghdad was overwhelmed by a wave of terrorist attacks - five car bomb explosions occurred in the capital. At least 30 people died on the spot and died from their wounds. They are all Iraqis, most of them law enforcement officers.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has traditionally taken responsibility for the death and destruction. At least three terrorist attacks yesterday were carried out by suicide bombers. One of the “warnings” sounded outside the Australian Embassy; no diplomats were injured, but two Australian soldiers were wounded. The remaining explosions occurred at a police station (18 people were killed there), Baghdad International Airport, an Iraqi National Guard base and a bank building where police officers receive their salaries.
There are also deaths in the city of Hilla, 100 km south of Baghdad, where the suicide bomber also “worked.” Over the past two days, two parliamentary candidates on the list of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi have been shot dead in Basra. Previously, both received letters threatening them and their family members “for aiding the occupation regime.”
Authorities are still keeping the addresses of voting stations in a number of hot spots secret, hoping to at least ensure the safety of voters. Yesterday, two Iraqi engineers died at the hands of extremists only because they were installing Internet communications for the Central Election Commission in the northern Iraqi cities of Mosul and Erbil.
At a press conference yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, noting the daily deterioration of the security situation in Iraq, said that elections in this country are nevertheless necessary to begin the “process of restoring national sovereignty.” At the same time, according to the minister, “their legitimacy should be determined by the Iraqi people themselves, and not by international observers or groups.” There is less and less hope for foreign controllers. Even Egypt, a supporter of speedy normalization in Iraq, decided not to send observers to the elections, fearing that they would become targets for terrorists.
Meanwhile, terrorists and criminals continue to capture foreign specialists in Iraq. Yesterday an engineer from Lebanon was taken hostage. And yesterday the top leaders of China stood up for the eight Chinese construction workers kidnapped the day before. Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao ordered the country's Foreign Ministry to "take urgent measures to save our compatriots." Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN |
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