Blast kills 8 Iraqis; official also dies

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An explosion at a market outside Baghdad killed eight Iraqis and wounded another 13 Thursday, hours after a bomb damaged an NBC News office and a member of the U.S.-appointed government died from wounds received in an ambush five days ago.

The market in Baqubah, about 30 miles north of Baghdad, is believed to have been struck by a mortar, U.S. military spokesman Sgt. Danny Martin said.

Earlier Thursday, a bomb damaged a hotel housing the offices of NBC News, raising fears of attacks against international media. A Somali guard was killed and an NBC sound engineer was slightly wounded in the early-morning explosion at the small al-Aike Hotel in the city’s fashionable Karrada district.

Meanwhile, a member of Iraq’s Governing Council, Aquila al-Hashimi, died from wounds suffered when she was ambushed by six men in a pickup truck near her Baghdad home. This was the first time violence claimed the life of a member of the U.S.-appointed administration.

Al-Hashimi, one of three women on the 25-member Governing Council and the leading candidate to become Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations, died in a U.S. military hospital five days after being shot.

In the north, eight American soldiers were wounded — including three seriously — when their convoy was ambushed with roadside bombs and small-arms fire in Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city.

The tenuous security situation prompted U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to order a further reduction in U.N. international staff in Iraq after two bombings at U.N. headquarters, including one on Aug. 19 that killed 22 people.

The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, warned he would use whatever force necessary to defeat those who attack American soldiers.

In an attempt to ease the burden on U.S. troops, the U.S. Central Command announced a plan to give servicemen and women 15 days annual leave if they have a 12-month tour of duty in Iraq. Eligible soldiers will be flown at government expense to Europe or the United States, Central Command said.