Three car bombs exploded in the western Baghdad district of Khadra on Wednesday killing some 15 people and wounded ten. Shortly after the car attacks, approximately 40 masked gunmen attacked Iraqi police in other parts of the city with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.
Heavy fighting then broke out between resistance forces and security personnel, who called on US troops for additional support. Eyewitnesses reported that at least six police cars were set ablaze.
On Tuesday evening, Iraqi forces had conducted raids in the districts of Amiriya and Ghaziliya, rounding up several suspected resistance fighters.
In a separate incident on Wednesday, the convoy of Awshoo Ibrahim, Iraq's Deputy Justice Minister, was fired at by gunmen, resulting in the death of four of his body guards. The attack was the second attempt on his life in two days, according to the AP.
Talabani: No stability without consensus
Amidst the fierce fighting, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani announced on Wednesday that Iraq's stability could not be achieved without consensus among its various communities.
He added that Iraq's constitution must be inclusive of all, including Iraq's Sunni Arab minority. "The constitution will be to serve everybody and not only one community of the Iraqi society," Talabani said at a meeting with parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani.
Sunni members of the constitutional drafting committee oppose several elements of the document, including wording on federalism, references to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and the description of Iraq as an Islamic state.
Saddam fires legal counsel
Also on Wednesday, Iraq's Special Tribunal released a report that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein reportedly fired all but one of his current legal defense team keeping instead one Iraqi lawyer, Khalil Al Dulaimi, to be his sole legal representative.
Judge Raid Juhi asked Saddam whether or not he wanted any international representatives. The former Iraqi leader replied that he did not.
In the coming months Saddam will begin appearing before what it expected to be dozens of Iraqi Special Tribunals. Saddam was accused last months of the death of more than 150 Iraqi Shiites in 1982 in the town of Dujail near Baghdad; if convicted, he could be sentenced to death.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
