Baghdad truck blast kills 17

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, December 18, 2003

Baghdad truck blast kills 17

A fuel truck bomb killed 17 people in a huge fireball in Baghdad Wednesday as violence gripped Iraq in the wake of Saddam Hussein's capture.

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A fuel truck bomb killed 17 people in a huge fireball in Baghdad Wednesday as violence gripped Iraq in the wake of Saddam Hussein's capture.

The US military said it had stepped up an offensive to isolate and eliminate former members of Saddam's regime and other cells fighting the US-led coalition.

The bomb in Baghdad's Bayya'a district exploded shortly after dawn in a huge ball of fire that tore through a packed minibus and several civilian cars.

One police officer said the truck appeared to be aimed for a nearby police station but collided with the minibus, triggering the blast. At least 17 people, mostly passengers, were killed and around 16 were badly burnt in the inferno.

The latest bomb and continued pro-Saddam protests in a number of cities in the "Sunni triangle" are further blows to any hopes that the ousted president's capture on Saturday would ease guerrilla attacks. Protesters burned the offices of two anti-Saddam political parties in Mosul yesterday.

US forces said they arrested eight people in the town of Samarra, 100 kilometres north of Baghdad, and rounded up three suspected insurgents in Baquba, 65 kilometres north of the capital, including an officer in the Fedayeen militia who was organizing attacks in the area.

The Samarra arrests were a continuation of Operation Ivy Blizzard, in which US forces said they captured 73 suspected insurgents including the leader of a guerrilla cell, in a house raid.

In Washington, US President George W. Bush said in an ABC News interview on Tuesday that Saddam deserves the "ultimate penalty (death)" for his iron-fisted rule of Iraq and that Iraqis should conduct the trial.

But Britain's Home Secretary David Blunkett told BBC Radio he thought Iraqis should decide Saddam's fate. "I don't believe in the death penalty... I believe it would be right for the Iraqi people to make the decision."

The United Nations, the Vatican and many countries worldwide - especially in Europe - oppose putting Saddam on trial before any court that could sentence him to death.

In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the head of Iraq's Governing Council agreed during talks yesterday that the capture of Saddam Hussein would allow all tribes to play a role in shaping the country's future, officials said.

Blair met Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, the council's president, and three other members of the council, who are on the latest stage of their European tour.

In an address to the UN Security Council, Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's foreign minister, accused the UN on Tuesday of failing his country by leaving Saddam Hussein in power for decades and appealed to the world body to assume a leading role in Baghdad immediately.

He said the UN offices outside of Iraq "...cannot be effectively delivered from Cyprus or Amman." But Annan said he needed a clearer picture of UN tasks and an indication that security had improved before reopening an office in Baghdad.

With Saddam Hussein behind bars, Asian governments are increasingly optimistic for peace in Iraq and stepping up plans to send troops in support of the US-led reconstruction.

South Korea finalized plans yesterday to send 3,000 troops, and a major Japanese newspaper Mainichi said yesterday Japan plans to send its first main troop contingent in late February after months of delay.

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