Fresh Insurgent Violence Kills 4 Marines, 14 Iraqis

BAGHDAD —  Insurgent violence flared in Iraq on Tuesday after more than a week of relative calm, killing four U.S. Marines in the west, a city official in Baghdad and at least 13 mourners at the funeral for an assassination victim in the volatile region north of the capital.

The attacks, apparently aimed at undermining Iraq’s new government, prompted interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and his supporters to declare war on the guerrillas, who also have sabotaged oil pipelines and power plants.

Recent attacks on the country’s economic infrastructure have slashed vital oil-export revenue and deprived Iraqi households of power to run fans and air conditioners in the 120-degree afternoon heat.

Borrowing a tactic from the insurgents, five masked men of unknown political alliance and calling themselves the Salvation Movement appeared on Al Arabiya satellite television threatening to hunt down and kill Jordanian-born fugitive Abu Musab Zarqawi unless he and his supporters left the country. Zarqawi, whose militant group is believed to be loyal to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network, has claimed responsibility for some of the most gruesome crimes of the insurgency that has been fighting U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

“The criminal Zarqawi and his henchmen must leave Iraq immediately,” said one of the masked men, seated at a table in front of four other armed men, one shouldering a rocket launcher. “Islam has nothing to do with this criminal.... We swear to Allah we will capture him and his followers and kill them as a gift to our people.”

The group’s threat appeared aimed at bolstering support for the Iraqi leadership as it struggles to bring stability to the country, but a senior U.S. military official warned that there was no room for vigilantes in the new Iraq, even those targeting the guerrillas.

“Militias are not consistent with the institutions of a democratic nation,” said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity. “There are Iraqi security forces that are capable of conducting those operations. Those who would like to express their outrage at Zarqawi and be part of the effort to capture or kill him, we would refer them to the nearest recruiting station.”

It was unclear whether the masked men were connected to the interim government or any of the political parties represented in the Cabinet.

The group’s appearance mimicked those of insurgents on Arabic-language TV stations, including suspected Al Qaeda collaborators who claimed to have kidnapped U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun.

On Tuesday, Lebanese relatives of the Marine, who went missing from his unit June 19, reported that they had been informed that the 24-year-old was free.

“We got solid assurances that my brother is alive and was released today,” Sami Hassoun told reporters outside his home in Tripoli, Lebanon, according to Associated Press. Reached later by telephone, he refused to comment further.

Wassef Ali Hassoun did not surface Tuesday, and the report could not be immediately confirmed. U.S. military officials in Baghdad said they had no word on his whereabouts. “We’ve been following the issue in the press,” a senior U.S. spokesman said.

The multinational force, as the troops of the former U.S.-led occupation coalition are now called, reported that four Marines were killed in action Tuesday in Al Anbar province in western Iraq, which includes Fallouja, an insurgent stronghold. The spokesman said he had no further information on the circumstances of their deaths. Three Marines were killed in the province Monday.

In Khalis, north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded at a memorial for the father of Mayor Uday Alkhadran, who was the intended target of an assassination attempt Monday that killed the older man. Six dead and 34 injured people were brought to a hospital after Tuesday’s blast, a witness said. He said he thought the death toll was at least 20 from what he had seen of the carnage. News agencies in the town reported 13 confirmed dead.

“The car was parking near where all the people were gathered,” said the witness, Ghasan Sabah. “There were remains scattered everywhere, and they are still on the ground for anyone to see.”

Khalis is near Baqubah, scene of recent fierce fighting between U.S. troops and insurgents who had sought to thwart the recent hand-over of sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority to Allawi’s interim government.

In Baghdad on Tuesday, gunmen presumed to be part of the guerrilla movement killed Sheik Sabah Naji, a member of the municipal council from the Adhamiya neighborhood.

Allawi lashed out at insurgents in a formal declaration in which he vowed to defeat those sabotaging national resources and public utilities.

“Evil forces are continuing to inflict damage on the people of Iraq,” the prime minister said. “Not only are they killing our innocent Iraqi civilians, they are also inflicting significant damage to Iraq’s economy.”

Noting that two attacks on Iraq’s main oil-exporting pipeline had cut deeply into the flow of crude as well as the country’s ability to generate electricity, Allawi said Iraq’s security forces were “capable and persistent on bringing these cowardly criminals to justice.”

Allawi has moved quickly in his first week in office to show Iraqis that the government, though temporary and appointed by the CPA, is dedicated to restoring security and reuniting the country.

An Iraqi criminal court arraigned former President Saddam Hussein three days after the sovereignty hand-over, and the government is expected to announce today a slate of emergency measures that can be invoked to crack down on insurgents, including curfews and broader police powers of search and seizure.

Allawi also has said leaders were discussing an amnesty offer to encourage former Hussein loyalists to stop taking part in the resistance now that U.S. authorities had ceded the government to Iraqis. He is also reconsidering decisions made during U.S. rule to fire former Baath Party members from state positions and to exclude former national army officers from the new security forces.