Police arrest 50 in Iraq after bombings
Iraqi employees of U.S. company held hostage
 |  A gunman approaches a man lying on Haifa Street in Baghdad on Sunday. The two men wearing red scarves were killed. |
| |
|  VIDEO |
 Officials vow deadly attacks in Najaf and Karbala won't derail elections.
 Deadly car bombs rock two Iraqi holy cities.
 Caution: Graphic images. AP photos show execution-style killings in Baghdad.
|
|
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi police said Monday they had arrested 50 people and set up checkpoints and roadblocks a day after car bombings in two of the holiest Shiite Muslim cities killed nearly 70 people.
Officials reported 52 deaths in Najaf on Sunday and 16 in another bombing about 50 miles (80 kilometers) away in Karbala.
Also Sunday, a security source said 10 Iraqi employees of a U.S.-based company had been abducted.
Meanwhile on Baghdad's Haifa Street, a few blocks away from the Green Zone, gunmen who made no attempt to hide their faces dragged a senior election official and his bodyguards from their car, forced them to kneel on the busy street and shot them dead.
U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, said the official's killing would have a "traumatic effect" on the preparations for next month's elections.
Officials have warned that violence aimed at derailing the elections would escalate as balloting approached.
Insurgent attacks in Iraq have prompted calls from many Iraqis to delay the voting.
But Iraq's interim government and the United States appeared determined to leave the date unchanged, seeing it as a key test and a critical opportunity to build international legitimacy.
Iraqi voters are expected to choose a 275-member transitional national assembly. That body will put together a permanent constitution that will go before voters in a referendum. If the law is approved, there will be elections for a permanent government by the end of next year.
The violence in Iraq spiked on the day Time magazine named President Bush as its Person of the Year. Bush's invasion of Iraq nearly two years ago became the dominant factor on which many around the world and at home have judged him. (Full story)
The president's central argument -- that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that could have been used against the United States -- turned out to be based on inaccurate intelligence. But Bush later said toppling the Iraqi dictator was reason enough.
Funeral procession attacked
Fifty-two people were killed and 142 wounded in Najaf after a car bomber plowed his vehicle into a funeral procession and exploded it yards from the city's Imam Ali shrine, Gov. Adnan Zurfi said Monday.
Fifty suspects have been arrested in connection with that attack, Zurfi said, identifying 49 as Iraqis and another as an Arab.
All roads into Najaf were temporarily shut down, and the Old City surrounding the Imam Ali Mosque has been closed off, with authorities erecting 35 checkpoints.
Najaf was the scene of heavy fighting between the Shiite Mehdi army militia and U.S. and Iraqi forces in July. Fighting ended in August, and Iraqi forces have controlled Najaf's security for weeks.
Two hours earlier Sunday, an attack near a bus station in Karbala killed 16 people and wounded 37, authorities said.
On Monday, another bomb exploded in Karbala -- in an area of abandoned houses about 400 yards (400 meters) from the Imam Hussein Mosque. No one was hurt in the blast, police said.
Seven people were killed in a bombing attack Wednesday near the same mosque. That blast occurred on the first day of campaigning for the January 30 elections. (Full story)
Meanwhile, The Associated Press Television News released video showing four masked and armed militants holding 10 men hostage.
Insurgents said they would kill the hostages, employees of the Washington-based Sandi Group, if the company did not leave Iraq, the AP reported.
The Sandi Group provides security, transportation, lodging and translation services in Iraq. A company official in Baghdad said it was looking into the report.
Some refugees invited back to Falluja
More than a month after U.S.-led forces conducted a major offensive in Falluja, west of Baghdad, some residents who fled are being allowed to return to their homes, the Iraqi interim government said Monday.
Beginning Thursday, residents of the Andalus District may return, the government said in a written statement.
A leaflet distributed to Fallujans staying elsewhere in Iraq -- some of them in makeshift refugee camps -- said residents of other districts will be allowed to follow later over a period of two or three weeks. (Full story)
CNN's Kevin Flower, Karl Penhaul, Cal Perry and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to this report.
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
