Gunmen killed Baghdad's governor in Iraq's highest-profile assassination in eight months and a suicide bomber killed 11 people at a police checkpoint yesterday in an escalating campaign to wreck the January 30 election.

Also in Baghdad, another roadside bomb blast killed three US soldiers. Elsewhere in Iraq, two US soldiers were killed.

The shooting of Governor Ali al-Haidri in a roadside ambush showed insurgents' power to strike at the heart of the governing class, raising fresh doubts as to whether security forces can protect politicians and voters as the ballot draws near.

The assassination took place hours after a bomber rammed a fuel truck into a checkpoint near Baghdad's Green Zone, a sprawling compound housing the Iraqi Government and the US and British embassies. The vehicle went up in a giant fireball that rocked the capital.

The blast killed eight police commandos and three civilians and wounded 60 people, bringing fresh scenes of bloodshed to Baghdad's streets.

The attacks were the latest in a drive by Sunni insurgents trying to force out US-led forces, cripple the American-backed interim government and scare voters away from the polls. Iraqi leaders say guerrillas also want to provoke sectarian civil war.

Haidri and one of his bodyguards were killed when gunmen opened fire on his car in western Baghdad, police sources said.

He was the most senior official assassinated in the city since the head of the Governing Council was killed last May.

Insurgents have repeatedly attacked Iraqi officials as well as members of the country's fledgling security forces, accusing them of collaborating with foreign occupiers.

A group led by al-Qaida ally Ab Musab al-Zarqawi said it had assassinated Haidri yesterday, according to an Internet statement.

Iraq urges UN to review

Iraq's president urged the United Nations yesterday to look into whether the country should go ahead with its scheduled January 30 election despite violence that could scare voters away from the polls.
 
"Definitely the United Nations, as an independent umbrella of legitimacy... should really take the responsibility by seeing whether that (timing) is possible or not," Ghazi al-Yawar said.

Iraq's interim government and their American allies have repeatedly said the vote would not be delayed but Yawar said the elections would fail if a raging insurgency kept a significant number of Iraqis away from voting stations.

(China Daily January 5, 2005)