Rebels intensify Iraqi campaign

By BUSHRA JUHIAssociated Press Writer

Soldiers from the Army’s Third Infantry Division plan a raid with the Iraqi Army at an indisclosed location in Iraq, Saturday. Iraqi Army forces will search for suspected insurgents and weapons while US troops provide logistics, security and backup support. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)

That raised the death toll from the latest wave of insurgent attacks that began on Friday to at least 79, including six U.S. soldiers. The violence was timed to deflate hopes in Washington and Baghdad that the installation of the Iraq’s first democratically elected government would curb the uprising.

Iraqi forces backed by the U.S. military, meanwhile, detained a number of suspects in the abduction of a British aid worker believed killed last year, the U.S. military said.

Articles apparently related to Margaret Hassan, the 59-year-old director of CARE international in Iraq, also were recovered during the morning raid south of Baghdad, according to the British and U.S. embassies.

Many of the recent attacks have been well-coordinated, and that was the case on a small road near Diala Bridge in eastern Baghdad, said police Lt. Col. Sabah Hamid al-Firtosi.

At 6:15 a.m., a pickup truck stopped near a checkpoint and insurgents jumped out, firing machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, al-Firtosi said. Other insurgents appeared from behind nearby trees and joined the attack, he said. Five policemen were killed and one was wounded.

A car bomb later exploded in the Zafaraniyah neighborhood of Baghdad, killing four Iraqi civilians and wounding 12, police said.

Elsewhere in Baghdad, insurgents in three parked cars opened fire with hand guns on a police patrol in the western Jihad neighborhood, wounding four policemen, police Capt. Talib Thamir said.

A suicide car bomber also attacked near a water pump station in southeastern Baghdad, said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, but no casualties were immediately reported.

South of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded on a main road north of Hillah, wounding four civilians, said police Capt. Muthana Khalid. In Hillah itself, a drive-by shooting on a police patrol caused no injuries, but the police arrested the four gunmen involved, he said.