Blast kills two Iraqi officials

BAGHDAD — The governor and acting police chief of a southern province were killed Saturday in a roadside bombing, raising fears of a backlash in an area that has been beset with fighting between rival Shiite factions.

Militants also bombed the northern Baghdad home of a moderate and highly regarded Sunni cleric who had recently spoken against al-Qaida. He was seriously wounded, and three relatives were killed.

Qadisiya Gov. Khalil Jalil Hamza and police Maj. Gen. Khalid Hassan were killed as they were driving back to the provincial capital, Diwaniya, from the funeral of a prominent tribal leader. The governor's driver and a guard also were killed in the blast.

A Sunni insurgent umbrella group had threatened the Baghdad cleric, Sheik Wathiq al-Obeidi, on Tuesday, accusing him of working with the U.S.-backed alliance of Sunni tribal leaders, who are fighting al-Qaida in western Iraq.

Hamza was a member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, one of the country's two largest Shiite political groups, which also controls the Qadisiya provincial council.

Rival factions have been vying for control of areas across Iraq's overwhelmingly Shiite south. Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is also popular in the area. Members of his Mahdi militia have fought U.S.-led foreign forces and Iraqi troops, and they are believed to have infiltrated the local police.

Residents blame the militia for a wave of assassinations in the city. The victims have included policemen, soldiers, teachers, even a popular wrestler.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's attack, and security officials said they were investigating it. A curfew was imposed, and Iraqi security forces fanned out to prevent further violence in the city about 95 miles south of Baghdad. U.S. aircraft circled overhead, residents said.

South of the capital, hundreds of armed Shiite tribesmen converged Saturday on the outskirts of Najaf to offer their services to provincial leaders in the fight against the Sunni Arab militant group al-Qaida in Iraq. Violence in the capital remained low after authorities lifted a three-day driving ban imposed to protect Shiite pilgrims traveling to a north Baghdad shrine for a religious holiday Thursday.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, arrived in Baghdad for his third trip to Iraq to meet with Justice Department officials helping fashion Iraq's legal system.

Police recovered the bodies of 11 unidentified gunshot victims across the city. A roadside bomb killed another person and injured two in a mostly Shiite section of southeast Baghdad, police said.

U.S. forces killed five suspected insurgents and detained 20 in raids the last two days, the military said.

The U.S. military reported the death of a soldier Friday in a noncombat incident. No further details were provided.

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.