Guerrillas ambush 13 in Iraq

Guerrillas killed six coalition soldiers and at least seven Iraqis in southern Iraq on Saturday in a coordinated assault on nations that ans...

Guerrillas killed six coalition soldiers and at least seven Iraqis in southern Iraq on Saturday in a coordinated assault on nations that answered US calls for troops to stabilise the country it invaded.

The attacks in Kerbala, a town holy to Shi’ite Muslims, also wounded 37 soldiers, including five Americans, and at least 80 Iraqis, US military officials and local hospitals said.

General Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, who is the head of the multi-national force in the region, said the attackers used four suicide car bombs, mortars and machineguns against two foreign military bases and a town council building housing local police.

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Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said two of the dead soldiers were Thais. Bulgaria’s Defence Ministry said four of its troops had been killed by one of the several car bombs that ripped through the town.

‘‘This was a planned, coordinated and massed attack,’’ the Polish PAP news agency quoted Tyszkiewicz as saying of the Kerbala raids. ‘‘In all cases, the suicide drivers were shot dead before they could strike their targets.’’

The attacks dealt yet another blow to hopes the December 13 capture of former President Saddam Hussein would soon rein in violence in Iraq that Washington blames on Saddam loyalists and Muslim militants. Iraqis said a fuel truck tried to smash its way into a Polish base before bursting into flame, killing several Iraqis.

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