Iraqi mayor, four guards die in blast

The Shiite Muslim mayor of a city south of Baghdad was killed Thursday along with four bodyguards when a roadside bomb tore into their convoy, the latest in a string of such attacks.

In the capital, American officials said a joint U.S.-Iraqi commission formed to look into last month’s shooting incident in which Blackwater USA security guards killed at least 11 Iraqis had yet to meet. In addition, most members of an FBI team that also will investigate the Sept. 16 shootings have not arrived and probably will not get to Iraq until next week, said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo.

The case has heightened anger among Iraqis toward foreign security companies that operate here. At least four investigations of the September incident have been launched. The Iraqi government already has said that, based on its initial findings, it considers Blackwater unfit to be working in the country.

Nantongo said the complexity of the case warranted special scrutiny and that the numerous inquiries would ensure “a 360-degree view of the case.” She said scheduling issues had prevented the U.S.-Iraqi commission from meeting so far.

Iraqi officials and witnesses have alleged that Blackwater, which guards U.S. Embassy workers in Iraq, fired without provocation. Blackwater officials say their employees fired after coming under attack.

In Washington, the House approved a bill that, if signed into law, would make private contractors such as Blackwater that work abroad for the U.S. government subject to the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. That would end the immunity they currently claim protects them from prosecution. But the bill faces opposition from the White House.

The mayor of Iskandariya, Abbas Hamza Khafaji, and four of his bodyguards were killed in the blast about 9:30 a.m., Babil provincial police said. The city is 25 miles south of Baghdad.

The attack came a day after three roadside bombs placed near the Polish Embassy in Baghdad exploded as the ambassador’s convoy passed, injuring him slightly and killing one of his bodyguards. In August, two provincial governors were killed in separate roadside bombing attacks.

Both the slain governors were members of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the country’s leading Shiite religious political group. Khafaji also was loyal to the council, which is involved in a power struggle in the south with a group led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr.

Clashes between the group’s militias have killed scores of people.

In Baghdad, U.S. military officials said a soldier was killed Thursday by small-arms fire in the capital. It gave no other details. At least 3,809 U.S. troops have died in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003, according to icasualties.org.

Earlier Thursday, a car bomb went off in a line of vehicles waiting to buy gasoline at a station in southeast Baghdad. The blast killed four people.

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tina.susman@latimes.com