Iraqi Insurgents’ Blitz Killed at Least 100

Iraqi insurgents, facing the day of power transfer on June 30, launched a blitz on six cities including Baghdad that featured car bombings, police post attacks, and ambushes.

At least 100 people died and 320 were wounded by these assaults. Most of the casualties are Iraqi civilians, and at least three U.S soldiers died, and 12 were injured.

An extremist Islamic group, Al-Tawhid wal Jihad [“God and holy war”], led by suspected Al-Qaeda ally, Abu Mussab Zarqawi, which also murdered a Korean hostage, Kim Sun-il, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

In the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a series of car bombing swept a police academy, a police post, and a hospital. Sixty-two people were killed, and 220 were wounded.

A U.S. military official said that these attacks started in the Sunni Triangle area of Baquba, Ramadi and Fallujah, and are now expanding all over the country to Baghdad and the southern city of Mahaweel. He apprehended that there would be a huge raid by militants in Baghdad in the near future.

Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi criticized that the attacks attempted ``to foil the democratic process.``

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted during an interview with BBC, “We underestimated the nature of the insurgency,” and, “[The insurgency] has become a serious problem for us.”

Ho-Gab Lee gdt@donga.com