Baghdad explosion kills 11

BAGHDAD — A suspected suicide bombing and two assassinations yesterday shattered more than two weeks of relative calm following the transfer of authority from U.S.-led forces to an Iraqi interim government.

The day began with a powerful explosion in central Baghdad. At least 11 persons died and another 40 were wounded, including one American soldier.

Later yesterday, insurgents tossed hand grenades and fired machine guns at a government convoy near the northern city of Mosul, killing Gov. Youssef Kashmola and two of his guards, the Interior Ministry said.

The ministry yesterday also reported the assassination of an Iraqi auditor in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad on Tuesday evening.

The explosion rattled windows throughout Baghdad shortly after 9 a.m. yesterday, near the British Embassy and less than 50 yards from the main entrance for pedestrians into the green zone, the nerve center of the interim government.

A four-wheel-drive vehicle with three or four occupants slowed down at the joint U.S.-Iraqi checkpoint and exploded before it could be searched, according to U.S. military officials.

“This is naked aggression against the Iraqi people,” said Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who visited the scene about 90 minutes after the blast. “We will bring these criminals to justice.”

Mr. Allawi said the attack was retaliation for the government’s arrest of 500 criminals and terror suspects a day earlier.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility by any of Iraq’s insurgent groups.

But a statement posted on a Web site yesterday and attributed to Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi claimed responsibility for a mortar attack near Mr. Allawi’s home last week.

The statement said Zarqawi’s militant group would continue to pursue Mr. Allawi, whom insurgents view as a collaborator with the 160,000 foreign troops in Iraq.

“We are after you,” the statement said.

President Bush, campaigning in Wisconsin, said Zarqawi was probably behind the Baghdad car bombing.

Reflecting the tough stand he has taken in his war against terrorism, he said he would not negotiate with Islamist militants, whom he called cold-blooded killers. “Therapy is not going to work with them,” he said.

Mr. Allawi’s office is inside the green zone, less than a mile from where the car bomb exploded yesterday. Neither Iraqi nor U.S. officials could say what the specific target might have been.

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