More than 100 Iraqis killed in a grave escalation; Allawi clings to elections timing

Some 110 Iraqis were killed at least in various parts of Iraq on Sunday in a drastic escalation of acts of violence during which Baghdad was shaken by clashes and booby trapped car explosions.

The Iraqi ministry of health said that most of the killing were in Baghdad where 37 persons were killed and in Tell-Afar near the Syrian borders where 51 persons were killed.

The Iraqi ministry of health said that 13 persons were killed -- including two children and one Palestinian journalist working for " al- Arabia " Saudi TV and is called Mazin al-Tumeizi and 59 were injured including four American soldiers within three hours of fighting between the American army and Iraqi gunmen during which an American raid was carried out against Haifa street in the downtown of Baghdad.

Meantime, six persons were killed including three of the attackers in an explosion of 4 booby trapped cars in Baghdad area.

In the first attack which targeted Abu Ghreib jail to the west of Baghdad the car was not blown up but its driver was killed.

In the second day, one booby trapped car tried to break into one of the houses in the Green Zone but members of the national guards opened fire at it and killed its driver.

In the third attack, a Colonel from the ministry of the interior was killed together with police officers in a booby trapped car explosion in al-Amereyah to the west of Baghdad. The explosion also resulted in wounding five persons in the lines of the Iraqi police.

In the fourth attack in a booby trapped car near Ibn Temeyah mosque to the west of Baghdad resulted in killing one Iraqi in addition to the driver of the car and 13 persons were injured including 6 members of the Iraqi national guards.

However, the prime minister of the Interim Iraqi government Eyad Allawi said that elections in Iraq will be carried out at its due date set in January 2005.

Allawi admitted in an interview with correspondents of international news agencies and correspondents that there are currently problems in Iraq but this will not prevent the organization of the elections in its due time. He stressed that his government is determined to win the war against what he called terrorists and to establish democracy in Iraq.

In the same context, the Iraqi Interim foreign minister Hoshyar Zeibari said that the Iraqi government is proceeding determinately towards running the elections in its due time.

Zeibari said following his meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmad Abu al-Gheit in Cairo that the Iraqi government is before an examination to prove its credibility before the Iraqi people by making the elections, stressing that the timing relies by the ultimate end on the security situation.