BAGHDAD, Iraq -Gunmen assassinated an Iraqi general and two companions in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad yesterday, and election officials said an alliance of Shiites won the most votes in the Jan. 30 elections.
On the military front, three U.S. soldiers were killed when their vehicle rolled into a canal yesterday, the military said. The men from Task Force Danger were on a combat patrol near the town of Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. command said in a statement.
In the north, insurgents attacked a U.S. convoy and a government building near the city of Mosul, leaving at least four people dead, hospital workers said. Two Iraqi National Guard troops also were killed while trying to defuse a roadside bomb.
U.S. hopes for a larger NATO role in Iraq suffered a setback when German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer yesterday rejected calls for the alliance to protect U.N. operations there. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also ruled out a U.N. security role.
The United Iraqi Alliance, a Shiite dominated list of candidates backed by Muslim clergy, won the most votes in the Jan. 30 balloting for a 275-member National Assembly, officials said yesterday. A Kurdish alliance was second; U.S.-backed interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's list was third.
The vote was the first free election in Iraq in more than 50 years and the first since Saddam Hussein was ousted from power after the U.S.-led invasion. The new assembly will elect a president and two vice presidents, who then will choose a prime minister, who will form a government.
Sunni Arab extremists, fearing a loss of their privileged position, have accused the Americans of manipulating the election to install Shiites and Kurds in power. Sunni Arabs, an estimated 20 percent of the population, form the heart of the insurgency, and many of them boycotted the election.
In the Baghdad assassination yesterday, the gunmen struck as Brig. Gen. Jadaan Farhan and his companions were traveling through Baghdad's Kazimiyah district, an Iraqi police officer said on condition of anonymity.
A claim of responsibility for the attack in the name of al-Qaida quickly surfaced on a Web site that often posts statements by Islamic militants. The claim described the brigadier general as a senior commander in the Iraqi National Guard and the guard commander at Taji camp, an American facility about 15 miles north of Baghdad.
There was no way to verify the claim's authenticity.
In the battle just north of Mosul, insurgents fired on the convoy in Al-Qahira district, leaving at least four people dead and two wounded, doctors at the Al-Jumhuri Teaching Hospital said.
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