UN supports elections in Iraq, John Abizaid survives an attack in al-Falouja

Commander of the Central American forces in Iraq gen. John Abizaid yesterday survived a missile shelling attack while he was in Falouja, to the west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Deputy commander of military operations Gen. Mark Kemet said in a press statement in Baghdad that Abizaid was visiting a complex for a local Iraqi civil defense group in Falouja when three missile shels were fired at his vehicle from roofs of nearby buildings. No casualties were reported from the attack.

The American forces retaliated by opening fire intensively and blocked the roads leading to the site of the attack while American planes flew in the skies of the area.

Earlier in the day, an American military spokeswoman announced the killing of two American soldiers and wounding a third in a bomb explosion implanted in one of the roads to the west of Baghdad on Thursday evening.

Two Iraqi policemen and one civilian were killed when an Iraqi inspection point was attacked by machineguns yesterday at the western entrance of al-Ramadi city, to the west of Baghdad.

In al-Samawah, a Japanese military source said that a mortar bomb exploded near the areas where the Japanese forces are positioned in the city. This is, however, the first explosion since the arrival of the Japanese forces to al-Samawah last Sunday. The explosion left damage in the buildings but no human casualties were reported.

In a separate incident, witnesses said that an explosion took place inside a garage for stoves maintenance, in al-Washash area, to the west of Baghdad, and resulted in critically wounding five Iraqis.

In Karkouk to the north of Baghdad, the city police commander announced that the American forces detained 17 police members under the charge of sneaking information on the moves of its forces in the area to resistance fighters.

Meantime, the US national security advisor Condoleezza Rice stressed that the American administration considered the increase of attacks in Iraq is by what she described as foreign terrorists, and by persons linked to al-Qaida organization who want to prevent Iraq from becoming a democratic country.

For his part, the Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zeibari said in an interview with the BBC that Iraq is targeted by what he called a terrorist campaign, launched by persons most of them are foreign Islamists extremists, and might last for several months, stressing that these elements do not have the support of the Iraqi people.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi minister of the interior, Mouri al-Badran, said that putting an end to the security situation in Iraq is linked to controlling the border. A matter which constitute one of the main problems this country suffers, holding the occupation forces responsible for controlling it.

In statements to the Iraqi TV yesterday, Badran said that Iraq had started the implementation of plans to found security and intelligence departments and rapid deployment forces, in order to fight what he called terrorism, and to put an end to organized criminal operations.