Iraqi policemen remove the body of a civilian after a car bomb exploded (AP)
BAGHDAD, (AFP) -Legislators worked against the clock to hammer out a draft constitution by Monday, as two British security guards and at least 22 Iraqis were killed in attacks across the country.
Members of the constitutional committee must decide by Monday whether they have made enough progress for parliament to vote on a draft by August 15, or whether they will require a six-month extension as envisaged by interim constitutional rules.
In Amman, Saddam Hussein”s defense team charged that the ousted dictator had been attacked by an unidentified man during a court hearing Thursday discussing charges over the brutal 1991 suppression of a Shiite uprising.
The two British security contractors were killed when their consular convoy was targeted by a roadside bomb near the southern city of Basra, the Foreign Office said in London.
Two Iraqi children were also wounded by the blast, which damaged two vehicles in the convoy, a British army officer told AFP.
Southern Iraq, where British forces are based, is relatively calm compared with the rest of the country, which is in the grip of a deadly insurgency mainly targeting US-led troops and Iraqi forces.
An Islamist armed group called the Brigades of the Imam Hussein claimed the attack in a statement whose authenticity could not be confirmed.
The group, whose name refers to the most venerated of all Shiite imams, manifested itself for the first time on July 16 when it claimed the murder of three British soldiers close to Amarah in the south of Iraq.
Another five people were killed and 25 wounded when a suicide car bomber attempted to ram a police patrol near the national theater in the center of Baghdad, police said.
Police reinforcements had been called to the area to provide security for a public meeting to discuss the draft constitution. Several legislators were at the event.
The attack took place as a crowd left the theater, according to a police officer on the scene.
Eleven cars, including a police patrol cruiser, were destroyed by the blast, which shattered windows in nearby buildings.
In another attack in Baghdad, several people were hurt when a bomb blew up near a US military patrol in the south of the city, the US military said.
"We did have some casualties," it said, but gave no details.
An Iraqi interior ministry official said at least one civilian was killed.
Another 11 people were killed in separate attacks in Ishaki and al-Dur north of Iraq, officials said.
In other violence, a senior Baghdad airport official and two employees were found with their throats slit after they were reported kidnapped three days earlier, and a top official at Iraq”s health ministry, Imane Naji Abdelrazzak, was abducted from her home, an interior ministry official said.
Saturday”s attacks followed a suicide bombing Friday on an army recruitment center in the northern town of Rabia, near the Syrian border, which police said killed 48 people.
It was claimed by the group of Al-Qaeda”s Iraq frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The victims were all young men waiting to enlist in the new Iraqi army whose numbers are being increased to allow for them to take over security responsibilities from US-led forces.
"The recruitment drive was being held over two days — Thursday and Friday — which was a big mistake from a security point of view as it allowed the suicide bomber to time his attack," said police colonel Yehya Al-Shummari.
Army and police recruitment centers have repeatedly been attacked by suicide bombers who have killed hundreds of would-be recruits, most of them young unemployed men seeking steady work.
More than 1,000 Iraqis join the new army each month, according to the US military.
In July alone, insurgents killed more than 50 other would-be Iraqi army recruits in similar attacks.
Meanwhile, Saddam”s defense team said an unidentified man had attacked the former president during a hearing of the Iraqi Special Tribunal on Thursday.
"As the president was leaving the courtroom a person … attacked the president and there was a fist-fight between them," the Jordan-based team said in a statement.
His lawyers said it was not immediately known if Saddam, who is in US custody awaiting trial on charges of crimes against humanity, was hurt.
The tribunal could not immediately be reached for comment.
Thursday”s hearing related to possible charges against Saddam over the brutal quashing of a Shiite uprising in 1991 following the Gulf war that ended Iraq”s occupation of Kuwait.
Earlier this month, the tribunal filed the first charges against Saddam over the 1982 killing of 143 residents of the village of Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, where he had been the target of a failed assassination bid. No date for his trial has yet been set.
Bloodied clothing is seen at the site of a car bomb yesterday in Rabia northern Iraq (AFP)
Iraqi policeman directs injured woman to first aid after car bomb attack in Baghdad (R)