Car Bomb Kills 17 In Iraq

A car bomb exploded in front of a hospital in a mostly Shiite town south of Baghdad Saturday, killing 17 and wounding 21, police and hospital officials said, a day after 23 were killed in two attacks aimed at the Shiite community.

A police captain, who refused to give his name, said the car bombing occurred in front of the main hospital in Musayyib, about 35 miles south of the capital in a religiously mixed area which has been the scene of frequent attacks by Sunni Muslim insurgents.

Elsewhere, a prominent Iraqi judge under Saddam Hussein, Taha al-Amiri, was assassinated Saturday by two gunmen in the southern port city of Basra, said Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi.

Al-Amiri, a former chief judge at Basra's highest criminal court, is one of several former Baath Party figures assassinated in the Basra area the past 18 months. Suspicion has fallen on Shiite extremists seeking revenge for Saddam's oppression of the majority Shiite community.

Fierce clashes erupted between American forces and insurgents in the northern city of Mosul. Witnesses said fighting raged around a mosque and that one gunman was killed in the battle.

A woman was killed when a mortar round hit her house, and another person was killed when a bomb exploded in the city's south, hospital officials said.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military on the reported fighting.

Earlier Saturday, police in Mosul said they discovered the bodies of six men dressed in Iraqi National Guard uniforms dumped on a main highway near the city. The bodies of six Kurds who had apparently worked for as security guards were also found in the city, a hospital official said.

The six Iraqi National Guardsmen had been shot in the chest and head, said police Lt. Ali Hussein. They were found in the area of Intisar, east of Mosul.

Attacks against Iraq's security forces have steadily risen following the Jan. 30 national elections. Insurgents have vowed to intensify their attacks against the Iraqi forces at a time when the United States is trying to pass those forces more of the responsibility of securing the country.

But the body count of police seems to be most particularly high in Mosul, the country's third-largest city, which has now become another flashpoint in the running battle between insurgents and U.S. and coalition troops.

Last week, a suicide bomber walked into a crowd of Iraqi policeman in Mosul, killing himself and 12 policemen. In December more than 150 bodies of mainly Iraqi security forces were found in Mosul in the space of one month.

In the city of Fallujah, a former insurgent stronghold that fell in a U.S. military siege in November, several hundred traffic police returned to the streets Saturday for the first time since the devastating assault.

The return of about 500 traffic policemen seemed to be a first tentative step at redeploying the city's Iraqi security forces.

South of Baghdad, gunmen shot dead a Sunni imam who worked for an endowment that handles funds for mosques. The man's son was also killed in the shooting. Their bodies were found dumped on a highway Thursday, officials said. It wasn't clear if the attack was a reprisal killing by Shiites seeking revenge for insurgent attacks on their community.

Friday's violence underscored some of the violence inflicted on Shiites by Sunni Arab extremists, who form the core of Iraq's insurgency.

On Friday, a vegetable truck rigged with explosives blew up outside a Shiite mosque northeast of Baghdad, and gunmen sprayed automatic fire into a bakery in a Shiite district of the capital in sectarian violence that killed at least 23 people.

The attacks occurred as election officials announced provisional final results from the Jan. 30 elections for provincial councils in 12 of the 18 provinces, showing Shiite religious groups winning over secular tickets in local races in much of the country.

Final results from the more closely watched national race for the 275-member National Assembly are expected in a few days. A Shiite-dominated ticket endorsed by the clergy is also leading in the national contest, indicating the growing influence of religion in the politics of the new Iraq.

In other violence, a suicide driver rammed a U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle and exploded in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, injuring three soldiers, the military said. Two Iraqi civilians were killed during a clash between U.S. troops and insurgents in Mosul. U.S. Marines killed two insurgents during an attack Friday night on a Marine position near Husaybah along the Syrian border, the military said.

Overall, at least 31 people were killed Friday, including 23 in the two sectarian attacks.

Friday's bombing outside the Shiite mosque took place in Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad. A pickup truck loaded with vegetables exploded just as worshippers were leaving prayer services. At least 12 people were killed, according to police Col. Tahseen Mohammed.

In the attack on the bakery in eastern Baghdad, gunmen in several cars blocked the street in front of the shop and stormed inside, shooting and killing 11 people, police said. The assailants escaped.

The attack appeared to fit a pattern of brutality by Sunni extremists against Shiites as the majority community stands on the verge of taking power as a result of the elections.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise one-day visit Thursday to Mosul and Baghdad, hailing what he called progress in Iraqi security forces after seeing some of them in training. CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier reported that Rumsfeld thanked American troops for sticking through hard times and Iraqi troops for joining the fight.

"There had to have been very hard days," Rumsfeld said. "There must have been moments when you wondered whether it was worth the effort."

But he said it was too soon to discuss when U.S. troops could begin coming home.