BAGHDAD, Dec 23: Guerillas stormed an Iraqi army post on Friday, killing 10 soldiers and wounding 20. While US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a pre-Christmas visit to a Marine base in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, guerillas launched a dawn assault on the roadside outpost near Adhaim, north of the capital, that lasted all morning.

Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack.

It started, the Internet claim said, with a suicide car bomb at a checkpoint. By the end, police said, 10 soldiers were dead and 20 wounded in the bloodiest attack since last week’s election. There was no account of casualties among the militants. A civilian motorist was killed and another wounded in crossfire.

In the same region, a suicide bomber on a bicycle killed up to 10 people at a packed Shia mosque. The assaults ended about 10 days of relative calm across Iraq.

The lull had coincided with draconian election security measures and with an informal truce by some guerilla groups.

Tens of thousands of Sunnis marched in Baghdad after Friday prayers in protest against provisional poll results confirming the dominance of Shia Islamists.

A UN official said he saw no need for the rerun Sunnis want, however, and Sunni leaders privately acknowledged the protests are partly aimed at gaining leverage in talks already under way on their role in a grand coalition government.

In the attack on the Shia mosque in Balad Ruz, northeast of Baghdad, as many as 10 Iraqis, including a policeman, were killed when a bomber strapped with explosives rode his bicycle into the courtyard, the US military said. It said four others were wounded.

Iraqi police had earlier put the death toll from the attack at four and said eight others were wounded.

“The bomber tried entering the mosque but the guards wouldn’t let him, so he blew himself up,” said Talib Tamimi, the imam of the mosque. He said over 1,000 worshippers were praying inside when the attack occurred.

Two US soldiers were also killed when a roadside bomb blasted their vehicle in the capital.

Six Sudanese, including a diplomat, were kidnapped after Friday prayers in Baghdad, the Sudanese foreign ministry said.

ATTACK ON SOLDIERS: The Adhaim attack was the latest in a series of large-scale assaults over more than a year that demonstrate the military training of the guerillas and their ability to coordinate.

Lacking sophisticated armour or equipment, Iraqi police and soldiers are among the most exposed to attacks by the guerillas.

As mortar bombs slammed into the main army base in Adhaim at dawn, police said, guerillas attacked an outlying post some 10kms to the north, on the main road to Kirkuk.

When reinforcements finally arrived, the militants turned on them too, a senior police officer in the area added. In all, the fighting raged for several hours before the attackers broke off.

Adhaim, 70kms north of Baghdad on the main road to the flashpoint city of Kirkuk, is violent. Nineteen Iraqi troops were killed there on Dec 3 when a joint patrol with US forces was ambushed.

Ethnic and sectarian tensions in Iraq appeared to soften somewhat during last week’s elections, when the Sunni community turned out in large numbers to vote. But sectarian anger has risen after partial election results showed Sunni-led parties fared poorly in areas like Baghdad.

Tens of thousands of Sunnis flocked from their mosques and marched through the capital after Friday prayers, chanting ‘No to America’ and calling for a re-vote.

Some Sunni leaders have warned that the informal truce called by guerillas eager for a voice in parliament could end due to disappointment with what they call fraudulent results. —Reuters