Iraq Watch: November 22, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide car bomber struck next to a convoy of Iraqi police vehicles in the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk on Tuesday killing at least 21 and wounding an additional 24. The suicide attack began when insurgents opened fire on a police checkpoint. As security forces were investigating the initial shooting incident a suicide car bomber rammed them detonating his explosive-laden vehicle.

Meanwhile, during a ceremonial event, attended by U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and top U.S. military commander in Iraq Gen. George Casey, in Tikrit, north of the capital, militants fired a barrage of mortars sending the top officials scrambling for cover. One of the mortar rounds landed approximately 300 yards from where the ceremony was taking place but failed to detonate properly. No one was hurt in the incident which U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson called "an ineffectual attempt to stop the progress that goes on every day in Iraq."

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military announced the deaths of three U.S. service members. One II MEF soldier was killed by an IED yesterday near Habaniyah while conducting combat operations. Two Task Force Freedom soldiers died Saturday as a result of enemy small-arms fire in Mosul.

Elsewhere, three security guards were killed by insurgents in al-Ghadeer, near Kerbala while three Iraqi policemen were gunned down in the volatile city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad.

Late Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Wafiq al-Samaraei, an advisor to Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, told Al-Jazeera that he had been contacted by what he called a "senior official of the resistance" responding to Talabani's recent call for insurgents to lay down their arms and attempt to resolve their grievances diplomatically.

This contradicts a joint statement released just yesterday by four of Iraq's most prominent insurgent groups. The Islamic Army in Iraq, the Twentieth Revolution Brigades, the Mujahideen Army, and the Islamic Iraqi Resistance Front released a joint announcement yesterday through the 'Coordination Department of the Jihad Brigades' stating that they categorically and emphatically rejected President Talabani's call for diplomacy. The statement said the current Iraqi government was illegitimate and contradicted the principles of Sharia, or Islamic Law.