Outburst of Attacks Leaves 10 Iraqis Dead

A spate of attacks -- in northern, central and southern Iraq -- left 10 people dead as insurgents continued to target Iraqis cooperating with the U.S.-led occupation, and rockets today struck three heavily guarded locations in the center of the capital: the Oil Ministry, the Palestine Hotel and the Ishtar Sheraton.

The most devastating of the fatal attacks occurred in Kirkuk, where a powerful truck bomb was set off by a suicide attacker outside the offices of a major Kurdish political party, killing at least five people, wounding several dozen and aggravating the already tense state of affairs in the strategic northern city.

Other deadly attacks occurred in the southern city of Basra and the towns of Anbar and Ramadi in central Iraq.

The Oil Ministry in Baghdad, empty on what is a weekend day in Iraq, was one of the few buildings protected by U.S. forces from looting in April and now shelters several ministries of Iraq’s U.S.-backed interim administration.

Eight rockets or mortar rounds struck about 7:20 a.m., causing damage between the third and fifth floors, and smoke was pouring from the building.

The rockets that struck upper floors of the Palestine and the adjacent Ishtar, which is popularly known as the Sheraton because it was formerly affiliated with the international hotel group, broke windows but appeared to cause only minor injuries among guests, who include news organizations and private contractors. It is a highly symbolic area, located along the Tigris River in the middle of downtown Baghdad and surrounded by fortified walls and closed-off streets to deter attacks.

At least one civilian was injured, said a U.S. colonel at the scene.

He added that a crude rocket launcher was installed in a donkey-drawn wagon used to sell propane tanks, and the cart was left on the street about 250 yards north of the hotels. Several rockets failed to launch, he said.

Coalition officials had no explanation for the timing of the attacks near the end of the Ramadan holy month, but they appeared to have increased the stakes for Iraqis cooperating with the U.S.-led coalition.

The Kirkuk blast was the first major suicide attack there since spring, when U.S. forces captured the hub of the national oil industry.

Officials said the suicide bomber was driving a pickup truck laden with about 500 pounds of explosives, near a compound occupied by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, among the major parties now competing for political leverage in Kirkuk and all of Iraq. The PUK has many enemies, including loyalists of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

No one claimed responsibility for the blast. But the likely culprits, U.S. and Iraqi officials said, include Hussein loyalists migrating up from the so-called Sunni Triangle to the south, and militants associated with terrorist groups including Ansar al Islam, which the Bush administration says has links to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network.

The strike, officials said, was probably meant as a challenge to the U.S.-led effort to remake Iraq and not related to the ethnic divisions that have occasionally spilled over into violence among the city’s Kurdish, Arab and ethnic Turkish populations.

“This was done by people who do not want peace in Iraq,” said Lt. Hasan Mohammed Sulaiman of the Iraqi police in Kirkuk.

Twisted chunks of steel were all that remained of the bomber’s pickup truck; a 6-foot-deep crater marked the spot of the blast. The victims appeared to be motorists and pedestrians passing by the PUK’s offices.

Ahan Mustafa Kamal, a schoolteacher and mother of four, was among those killed. She was headed home after work.

“She was a good woman, completely dedicated to teaching, to her children and to God and studying the Koran,” said her sister-in-law Almaz Mohammed Mahmoud, a retired teacher. “We don’t know what is happening to our country. No one feels safe. This insecurity must end.”

In the southern city of Basra, a representative of the Assyrian Democratic Movement on the City Council was killed on his way to work, the party said. The body of Sargoun Nanou Murado was found in a suburb, according to a statement.

In Anbar, an hour’s drive west of Baghdad, the son of the village police chief was killed when three men armed with Kalashnikov rifles and grenades attacked the house of Maj. Gen. Jadaan Alwani, witnesses said. Alwani’s son, 18-year-old Mohammed, died.

In nearby Ramadi, three people were killed and seven injured when a car exploded outside the entrance to a walled complex of homes owned by families from the Sulaiman clan, whose members include a representative to the Governing Council.

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Times staff writer John Daniszewski in Baghdad contributed to this report.