Baghdad — Iraq's interim Prime Minister signed a long-anticipated law that allows him to impose emergency measures to battle a persistent insurgency, an official in his office said Wednesday.
As if in response to interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's move, four mortar rounds shook a neighborhood near the headquarters of Mr. Allawi's Iraq National Accord party Wednesday. Six people were wounded, an Interior Ministry official said.
The attacks on a stretch of Zeitoun Street in central Baghdad hit a building belonging to a foundation working to combat chest diseases. Three of the foundation's employees were among those injured in the attack.
A mortar also hit near a home used by Mr. Allawi, the official said on condition of anonymity. Mr. Allawi was not present at the home at the time, the official said.
Soldiers of the Royal Highland Fusiliers carry the coffin of Gordon Gentle, 19, during his funeral at St James's Parish Church in Glasgow on Wednesday. He was killed during a patrol on June 28. (Chris Furlong/Getty Image)
The assault marked the second time Mr. Allawi's party, the Iraqi National Accord, was targeted. In the days before U.S. officials handed over power to Mr. Allawi's interim government on June 28, insurgents overran the offices of the Iraq National Accord in Baqouba, an insurgent hotspot north of the capital, Baghdad. No one was hurt in that assault.
The attacks came only hours after Mr. Allawi was set to unveil the law formally. The new law gives Iraqi officials the ability to institute martial law for limited periods of time and under special circumstances.
"The borders are still open for infiltrators and, as a result, the security situation is unstable," said Imad Hussein al-Shebeeb, a senior member of the INA. Mr. al-Shebeeb said that Mr. Allawi and the other ministers are committed to the security of the country.
Later, another explosion rocked the city, shaking the terminal building at Baghdad International Airport. There was no immediate word on whether there was any damage at the airport or any casualties.
The new law gives Iraqi officials the right to impose martial law in special circumstances and for limited periods of time in specific places, said Nassir Nassir, an official in Mr. Allawi's office. The law has been signed and approved by the government, he said.
In its current form, the new law calls for the revision of emergency measures every 60 days, contingent on the approval of the cabinet, including the president and the country's two vice presidents, said an official in the Defence Ministry speaking on condition of anonymity.
"There will not be an automatic renewal of the law," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. It will be revised "so that we don't have emergency laws in place for 20 years."
The law is expected to be a package of initiatives to combat the insurgency.
On Saturday, Mr. Allawi's spokesman, Georges Sada, suggested that guerrillas who fought the Americans before the sovereignty transfer could be eligible for amnesty because their actions were legitimate acts of resistance.
However, the deputy prime minister for national security, Barham Saleh, said the cabinet was discussing an amnesty offer and was deliberating how to give "people an opportunity to reintegrate within society" while at the same time "remaining firm against people who have committed atrocities and have committed crimes against the people of Iraq and against the coalition forces that have come to help us overcome tyranny."
Meanwhile Wednesday, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for an attack on U.S. forces in western Baghdad earlier this week, according to a statement posted on an Islamic Web site.
The military wing of Mr. al-Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group claimed 100 of its fighters attacked U.S. forces on Monday in al-Saqlawiya, west of the Iraqi capital.
The statement did not specify how many American soldiers were injured or killed.
The U.S. military on Tuesday announced that three Marines assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed while on duty in western Iraq. Two died in action Monday in the Anbar province, while a third died of his wounds later Monday.
Another four U.S. Marines were killed Tuesday in the Anbar province while conducting security and stability operations on Tuesday, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
The area is a volatile Sunni Muslim-dominated region of Iraq extending from the outskirts of Baghdad to the borders of Syria and Jordan.
"One hundred of the lions of God ... made a trap in al-Saqlawiya for the American devil soldiers," the statement claimed. It also said that two helicopters and two humvees, including the U.S. forces inside the vehicles, "were destroyed."
The United States is offering $25-million for information leading to Mr. al-Zarqawi's capture. He is believed to be behind a series of co-ordinated attacks on police and security forces that killed 100 people only days before U.S. forces handed over power to an Iraqi interim government.
His followers have also claimed responsibility for the beheading of American Nicholas Berg and South Korean Kim Sun-il.
An armed vigilante group, calling itself "Salvation Movement," threatened on Tuesday to kill Mr. al-Zarqawi for insurgency attacks that have killed Iraqis, making the first internal threat against the Jordanian militant.
