Rebels target buses, 23 Iraqis killed

The US 1st Infantry Division said gunmen in two cars opened fire on two civilian buses carrying Iraqis to work at an arms dump outside Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit on Sunday, killing 17 Iraqis and wounding 13 others.

A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle beside a National Guard convoy in the rebel stronghold of Baiji, north of Tikrit, killing local National Guard commander Mohammed Jassim Rumaied and three of his bodyguards, colleagues said.

Gunmen killed two National Guards and wounded four others in an attack near Latifiya, a town south of Baghdad that has seen persistent unrest, officials said.

On Saturday, a suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Kurdish peshmerga fighters in Mosul, killing 16 people, Kurdish officials said. The peshmerga have been helping secure Mosul since most of the city’s police fled after an insurgent onslaught last month. Two suicide bombers also struck at a police station just outside the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad on Saturday, killing seven people and wounding more than 50.

There continues to be unrest in Falluja. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society, which entered Falluja latelast month to help with relief efforts, withdrew on Sunday due to the dangers of operating, with rebels and US forces still clashing in several areas. The Red Crescent was the only aid agency in Falluja.

Lakhdar Brahimi, former UN special envoy to Iraq and the architect of January’s electoral process, told a Dutch newspaper on Saturday that the elections should not go ahead if the current violent environment persists. ‘‘Elections are no magic potion, but part of a political process. They must be prepared well and take place at the right time to produce the good effects that you expect from them,’’ Brahimi told NRC Handelsblad.

Asked if it was possible to hold elections as conditions are now, Brahimi said: ‘‘If the circumstances stay as they are, I personally don’t think so.’’

Meanwhile, interim Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar reaffirmed his support for holding elections on January 30 in Iraq, saying any delay would be a victory for violent foes and trigger resentment. Yawar also voiced hope that American troops could be withdrawn within a year or so provided Iraq’s own security forces can take over. “I don’t think it will take several years,” Yawar told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. “It will take months.” —Reuters