At Least 30 Killed, Dozens Wounded in Iraq Violence

AFP and other wire services report that violence in Iraq on Friday killed at least 30 persons (including 24 guerrillas in Fallujah) and wounded dozens.

Guerrillas blew up a fuel tanker in Baghdad near the Jordanian embassy, killing at least one person and wounding 19.

A campaign of assassination against provincial notables serving on local and provincial governing councils sponsored by the US continued, with the killing of tribal leader Shaikh Zaid Khalifa Muhsin Al-Bin-Uways late on Thursday in Sa'diyah. On Wednesday, guerrillas had gunned down Hazem Daraa, a tribal leader in Tikrit.

In downtown Samarra, US forces battled guerrillas, leaving 4 civilians wounded in the crossfire.

Guerrillas and Iraqi national guardsmen fought one another in Duluiyah, leaving one Iraqi dead and four wounded.

Guerrillas detonated a roadside bomb between Samarra and Tikrit, killing one child and wounding three others.

There was more fighting in Fallujah, in which one radical Muslim web site estimated 24 guerrillas, mostly foreigners, were killed.

Some of the inhabitants returning to Fallujah have left again. Ash-Sharq al-Awsat quoted one as saying that not even animals could live in the ruins the Americans had left behind.

Guerrillas captured Iraqi National Guards Colonel Saadi Aftan Hammoud on Friday, as he travelled to Ramadi from Baghdad (AP).

Three Kurds were kidnapped and a fourth wounded in Kirkuk. They were working for the water and sewerage authority.

Guerrillas dynamited the mayor's mansion in Ramadi.

In Buhriz near Baqubah, guerrillas hit the police station and governor's mansion with mortar and small arms fire, but caused no casualties.

AP reported that US troops opened fire on a family travelling by car in Baghdad, killing a young girl and wounding her mother and brother.

The fundamentalist Association of Muslim Scholars, which has a high standing among Sunni Muslims, called again on Friday for a Sunni Arab boycott of the elections for parliament scheduled for January 30. AP writes:

' "We are not against the elections, but we want fair elections that represent the Iraqi people. Since this is not possible at the time being ... we call for postponing it," senior cleric Sheik Ahmed Abdul-Ghafour al-Samaraie told worshippers at Baghdad's Um al-Qura mosque during Friday prayers. '