Bomb Kills 7 at Iraqi Ministry

BAGHDAD —  A series of attacks Tuesday claimed the lives of at least nine Iraqis and wounded more than 25 as insurgents continued their campaign to undermine the U.S.-appointed interim Iraqi government.

Two bombs in Mosul targeted the Iraqi national guard, a bomb exploded outside the main Education Ministry office in Baghdad and explosions rocked oil pipelines in northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, kidnappers released another video of Margaret Hassan, director of the CARE humanitarian group’s Iraq office, in which they threatened to turn her over to Al Qaeda-linked militant Abu Musab Zarqawi. Zarqawi’s group has claimed responsibility for beheading at least six hostages and for some of the most lethal bombings in recent months.

The car bomb in Baghdad at the Education Ministry killed at least seven people and injured 15, according to the Iraqi police. Among the dead were three Iraqi police officers. Several passersby also were killed. The powerful explosion shattered almost every window in the ministry building, forced hundreds of workers to flee and damaged surrounding houses.

Witnesses and the Iraqi police said the bomber apparently was kept some distance from the building by barriers.

Muayad Majid Ani, 40, saw the explosion from the gate of his house less than 500 feet away.

“Losses in materials can be compensated,” he said. “But loss of lives can never be compensated.”

His neighbor, Amina Mohammed, 35, wept as she described the scene. “I cannot forget: A man was burning in front of everyone where the bomb exploded,” she said. “He burned to death. He was inside a parked car when this happened, and he caught on fire from his own car and the other burning cars.”

In the northern city of Mosul, a midday bombing targeted the convoy of Maj. Gen. Rasheed Filayeh, commander of the special forces of the Iraqi national guard.

He was unharmed but seven of his guards were injured. Later in the day, two guardsmen were killed and four wounded by a second bomb.

Over the last several months, attacks targeting Iraqi security forces and Western contractors have become more frequent in Mosul.

Saboteurs bombed an oil pipeline and an oil well in northern Iraq in two attacks Tuesday that shut down exports from the north, said Maj. Gen. Tourhan Abdul Rahman, a member of the Iraqi security forces in Kirkuk. One of the explosions was at a well near Kirkuk; the second was about 40 miles south of the city on the pipeline that runs to the huge refinery at Baiji, 125 miles north of Baghdad. Exports were expected to resume in about 10 days.

Two hostage dramas continued Tuesday, those of CARE’s Hassan and of several employees of the Saudi Arabian Trading & Contracting Co., a Saudi-Lebanese firm -- including an American -- who were abducted Monday.

Meanwhile, in a video given to Arabic-language satellite channel Al Jazeera, a hooded gunman was shown and a voice said Hassan would be turned over to Zarqawi unless Britain pulled its troops out of Iraq within 48 hours. Al Jazeera refused to air the video because it was determined to be “too graphic.”

In it, Hassan is shown pleading for her life and then fainting, according to wire reports that quoted people who had seen it. Someone throws a bucket of water on her head and then she is shown on the floor, crying.

Zarqawi’s group Tuesday said it was behind the beheading of a Japanese backpacker. Previously the group has claimed responsibility for the beheadings of three Americans, a Briton and a South Korean. The United States has offered a $25-million reward for Zarqawi’s capture or death.

Of the more than 150 people who have been taken hostage, four have been women. Two Italian women working for a non-governmental organization were released but Hassan and a Polish-Iraqi woman are still being held. Both are married to Iraqis and have lived for decades in Iraq.

Information also emerged on Monday’s kidnapping, clarifying that of the six captured, one is Filipino and three are Iraqis. Also captured were an American and a Nepalese. Two of the three Iraqis were released Tuesday, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Baghdad said.

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Times staff writer Suhail Ahmed and special correspondents Caesar Ahmed in Baghdad and Roaa Ahmed in Mosul contributed to this report.