99 convicted of terrorism

Baghdad/Kirkuk: Iraq's central criminal court has convicted 99 people on "terrorist" charges since May 20 and sentenced 16 of them to death, including two non-Iraqi Arabs, the US military said yesterday.

Iraq's highest criminal court "convicted 99 individuals from May 20 to June 2 for violations of the Iraqi Terrorist Law, Penal Code and Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) Orders enforced by the Iraqi judiciary," the military said.

Nine of those sentenced to death were convicted of kidnapping and torturing Iraqis. Another two were foreign fighters from Libya and Saudi Arabia, and one was an "admitted member of Al Qaida," the statement said.

Criminal court

"In addition to the death penalty sentences, the central criminal court of Iraq sentenced seven Iraqis to life imprisonment" for violations of the terrorism law and for kidnapping, the military added in a statement.

The rest of the suspects were convicted for a range of terrorism-related charges, including weapons possession and membership of illegal organisations, and given sentences of between one and 30 years behind bars.

Meanwhile, in the city of Kirkuk, a suicide bomber exploded an oil tanker yesterday killing 15 people and wounding 66, including policemen and local politicians.

The bomber blew up the tanker outside police headquarters and a cluster of government buildings in the town of Sulaiman Beg, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the northern city of Kirkuk, police and hospital officials said.

"Several of the wounded are city council members and police officers, including the chief of police in Sulaiman Beg, Hassan Ali Al Bayati," a local hospital official said.

The attack came at 10:30am and gutted the police headquarters and two local administration buildings, setting off fires near the blast crater, said a police officer from the nearby town of Tuz Khurmatu.

"Rescue efforts are still going on and they are still trying to put out the fires," said police Colonel Abbas Mohammad Ameen, adding two of the dead and 18 of the wounded were policemen. The wounded also included two local politicians.

He added that most casualties had to be driven long distances for treatment, with the nearest hospital more than 20 kilometres from the blast site.

Insurgents

The latest attack - two days after a Baghdad bomb killed 87 people - was carried out as the US military pressed an air and ground assault on Al Qaida strongholds north of Baghdad.

The military said yesterday it had killed 41 people it described as insurgents and had destroyed some of their hideouts.

In another development, Kurdish officials said they had reached agreement with the central government on equitably sharing revenues from Iraq's oilfields but that negotiations would continue on other disputed clauses.

Earlier, Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said all the areas of dispute in a landmark draft oil law had been resolved and the bill had been submitted to parliament.

The draft, crucial to regulating how wealth from Iraq's huge reserves will be shared by its sectarian and ethnic groups, was approved by the cabinet in February but faced stiff opposition from Kurds, who felt they were getting a bad deal.