BAQUBA, Dec 3: Guerillas ambushed an Iraqi army patrol north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing 19 soldiers in a well-planned attack, a day after the Pentagon announced 10 US Marines were killed by a bomb west of the capital.
The Iraqi soldiers were travelling in a five-vehicle patrol near Baquba, 60kms from Baghdad, when they were hit by a roadside bomb. Immediately afterwards, guerillas opened fire in what police described as a well-planned assault.
The attack in Baquba, where there has been a surge in guerilla activity over the past three weeks, followed an assault on the Marines near Fallujah on Thursday, the deadliest single attack on US troops for four months. The Marines were on a foot patrol near a factory when they were struck by a bomb made out of several artillery shells strung together, the Marine Corps said. The deaths raise to more than 2,120 the number of US troops to have died in Iraq.
US commanders have said they expect a sharp increase in violence in the build-up to the election. Over the past three weeks there have a been a series of car bombings and suicide attacks that have killed more than 230 Iraqis, mostly civilians.
IMPACT ON VOTING: On Saturday, Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, Iraq’s most influential Shia leader, issued instructions to followers urging them to vote in the election and to cast their ballots in favour of religious candidates from the principal lists.
While falling short of a fatwa, the instructions are likely to have an impact on voting and looked like a coded endorsement of the main Shia bloc contesting the elections, the United Iraqi Alliance, winner of January’s poll.
According to Ayatollah Sistani’s office, the reclusive scholar has instructed believers to do three things: turn out to vote; avoid voting for any list whose leader is not religious; and avoid voting for ‘weak’ lists so as not to split the Shia vote.
Ayatollah Sistani holds huge sway over Iraq’s 60 per cent Shia majority. His instructions could dent the hopes of secular Shia candidates such as Iyad Allawi and Ahmad Chalabi.—Reuters
