Bomb wave kills at least 12 in Iraq
Middle East Desk Report

BAGHDAD—A series of bombings in Iraq on Thursday killed at least 12 people, including a town mayor, the day after the Polish ambassador narrowly survived an attack in the capital.
The mayor of Iskandariyah, a mixed Shiite-Sunni town 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Baghdad, and four of his bodyguards were killed by a roadside bomb on their way to work, police said. Another bodyguard was wounded. “An improvised explosive device planted at the side of the road exploded while the vehicle of Abbas al-Khafaji, mayor of the district, was passing by, killing him and one of his bodyguards while heading to his office,” a police official said.
Two car bombs also exploded in the Iraqi capital, killing at least seven people, interior ministry and defence officials said.
A bomb in a minibus exploded in Al-Zafaraniyah in southeast Baghdad, killing four people and wounding eight, while another killed three and wounded eight in Garage Amana in the centre of the capital. Separately, gunmen killed police Brigadier General Ihsan Abdul Karim in a drive-by shooting as he left his home in Babel, south of Baghdad, police said. The wave of attacks comes the day after Poland’s ambassador narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Baghdad that left one Polish bodyguard and two Iraqis dead.
Three roadside bombs, timed to go off at short intervals, ripped through ambassador Edward Pietrzyk’s convoy on Wednesday as he left his residence in the Al-Arasat neighbourhood.
But Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said his country would not withdraw the 900 troops it has stationed southwest of Baghdad, saying “desertion is always the worst option.”
Poland was a solid supporter of the United States in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supplied troops to the US-led coalition that have continued their deployment ever since. A total of 21 Polish soldiers have been killed in Iraq.
The weapons are intended for Iraq’s police where only one in five officers are armed, it quoted Talabani as saying in an article published on its Web site on Thursday.
The Iraqi president also called for faster U.S. weapons deliveries to strengthen Iraq’s army. “The capacity of the factories here are not enough to provide us quickly with all that we need, even for the army,” the newspaper quoted Talabani, who is visiting the United States, as saying.