At Least 10 Dead In Deadly Blasts In

At least 10 Dead in Deadly blasts in Mosul, Telafar

Wire services report that a suicide bomber killed five Iraqis in Mosul, and another killed five Iraqis in the largely Turkmen city of Telafar. Guerrillas attempted to assassinate a deputy interior minister, but killed his bodyguard and injured three others, while he escaped.

On Monday, a suicide pickup truck blew up in Samarra near American troops, killing three Iraqis and wounding 20. One US soldier was seriously wounded, and three were lightly wounded and returned to duty.

In volatile Kirkuk the Ansar al-Sunna terrorist group ambushed police, injuring two. (Most Kirkuk policemen are Kurds).

A window on the guerrillas was opened by an important arrest. “Fadhil Ibrahim Mahmud Al-Mashadani, the former leader of the Military Bureau in Baghdad during the Saddam Hussein regime, was apprehended by security forces in a military operation conducted at a farm in the northeast of Baghdad,” a government statement said. It said he was suspected of being a crucial link between former senior Baath party leaders hiding in Syria and guerrillas in Iraq.”

I am skeptical about formal Syria support for the guerrilla war, which could easily boomerang on Damascus. But that al-Mashadani sorts of former military officials are liasons among guerrilla factions is probably pretty typical.