At least six people were killed on Thursday in attacks around Baghdad. The director of Iraq's state-run telecommunications company and his bodyguard were killed by armed men in Baghdad. Qassem Mihawi was shot dead as he was leaving his home in the Jamiha district of western Baghdad, communication ministry official Abbas Mohammed said Thursday, according to AFP.
A medical source at Baghdad's Yarmuk hospital said that it had received the bodies of Mihawi and his bodygard Areth Abdel Haq. Eight of Mihawi's bodyguards were also injured in the attack and were taken to the hospital.
In western Baghdad, a roadside bomb went off near a passing SUV, badly damaging the vehicle, police said. After the explosion, gunmen opened up on the survivors with automatic fire, killing a foreigner and injuring two others, Al-Khadra police commissioner Ali Hussein Al-Hamadani said, according to the AP.
Three Iraqi National Guardsmen died and six others were injured when another roadside bomb detonated in western Baghdad as their pickup truck was driving by.
And a U.S. soldier was injured when the tank he was riding in struck a mine near Beiji, north of Baghdad, a spokesman said Thursday.
Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush warned neighbouring Iran and Syria to stop "meddling" in Iraq's affairs. "We will continue to make it clear, to both Syria and Iran, that -- as will other nations in our coalition, including our friends the Italians -- that meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq is not in their interest," Bush said in Washington after meeting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
