Iraq Watch: January 2, 2006

Insurgents Launch Attacks as Politicians Seek Coalitions

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Militants launched an array of attacks throughout Iraq on Monday as Iraqi politicians worked to create partnerships for the nations next government.

In the capital city of Baghdad, gunmen attacked a group of day laborers killing five. Also in Baghdad, militants opened fire on the convoy of Turkish ambassador Unal Cevikoz as he traveled on the notorious airport road, also referred to as "Route Irish." No injuries were reported in the incident.

Elsewhere, three policemen were killed and two injured in a gun battle with suspected insurgents in western Baghdad. In southeast Baghdad, meanwhile, police discovered the executed bodies of eight civilians while the body of an Iraqi policeman was found in a western district of the city.

Northeast of the capital in Baqouba, a suicide bomber rammed his car into a bus full of Iraqi police recruits killing at least seven people and wounding 13. In Anbar province, four U.S. civilian contractors died yesterday at the Al Asad Air Base in what is being described by the U.S. military as a "non-hostile vehicle accident." Eighteen other civilians and one U.S. Marine were injured in the incident.

In ongoing political wrangling Monday, top Sunni leaders from the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) met with Kurdistan's President Massoud Barzani and reached a preliminary agreement on a general outline of a national government.

The meeting held in Irbil, however, raised the eyebrows of other Iraqi political figures and groups. Saleh al-Mutlaq of the Sunni National Dialogue Front (NDF) told the AP that his political bloc was "shocked when we heard that our brothers, who signed agreements with us yesterday to discuss just the fraudulent elections with the Kurdish leaders, instead were discussing forming a national unity government."