Iraqi insurgents step up attacks as US forces wage offensive

Iraqi insurgents killed at least 14people in a string of bomb attacks across the country, as the US military pressed forward with a major offensive near the Syrian border on Saturday.

Gunmen killed Jassim al-Muhammadawy, director general of administration in the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, in front of his house in western Baghdad. Three bystanders were wounded.

In central Baghdad, a suicide bomber drove a booby-trapped car into a police patrol, killing at least four bystanders and wounding three others, including two police officers.

The blast took place at about 1:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) on a road near the Iraqi Industry Ministry, sending thick black smoke rising into the sky, according to police and witnesses.

In another attack, insurgents hurled grenades at a police convoy in western Baghdad, killing one policeman.

Five Iraqis were also killed when a suicide bomber, driving a motorbike, ran into a joint US-Iraqi convoy on the road between Tuz Kharmatu and Sulayman Beg, south of the northern oil center of Kirkuk, an army officer said.

Earlier on Saturday, three Iraqi street cleaners were killed in a roadside bomb blast in southern Baghdad, medical sources said.

The blast took place at 7:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) in Dora district, killing the three municipal workers and wounding four other people,medics of Yarmouk Hospital said.

A booby-trapped vehicle also detonated near an Iraqi police patrol, wounding three policemen and a civilian in central Baquba,some 60 km northeast of Baghdad.

Violence has re-surged over the past two weeks as insurgents stepped up attacks on Iraq's fledgling security forces in an attempt to undermine the new transitional government sworn in on April 28.

Meanwhile, the US military said nine of its troops were killed in a week-long offensive against insurgents in western Iraq, the largest operation since the assault on the rebel enclave of Fallujah last November.

The Marine-led Operation Matador, launched on May 7, is designed to root out guerrillas in one of their most active areas near the Syrian border.

On Saturday, precision-guided missiles fired by coalition warplanes destroyed two unoccupied buildings near Fallujah that the military identified as an insurgent command center.

US Marines said the targeted buildings were located about 30 km northwest of Fallujah.

The military said in a statement that it inspected the site following the bombings and discovered machine-gun ammunition, homemade bombing making materials and anti-coalition propaganda.

Source: Xinhua