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Aide to influential Shiite cleric killedSuicide bomb at P.M.'s political party office
SPECIAL REPORT
• Interactive: Who's who in Iraq
• Interactive: Sectarian divide
• Timeline: Bloodiest days for civilians
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSBAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A suicide car bomb killed a person outside an office of the Iraqi prime minister's political party, and in a separate incident in Baghdad Friday, an aide to Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric was gunned down, police said. Meanwhile, U.S. and Iraqi forces in western Iraq continued to target insurgents between Haditha and Hit, cities along the Euphrates River, in an offensive dubbed Operation Sword. Police sources said a guard was killed when the bomb exploded outside a Baghdad office of the Dawa Party, which is headed by Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. They said the attack in the western neighborhood of Mansour took place at 1:50 p.m. The other incident happened nearly a half hour later in the central neighborhood of Alawi, a poor, Shiite-Sunni area close to the volatile Haifa street. Police said Kamal Izzildin, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was killed. Al-Sistani is based in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. Near Hit, where coalition forces conducted a fourth day of their Operation Sword offensive, Marines defused a string of bombs that led to a school. "Marines and sailors with Combat Logistics Battalion-2, 2nd Force Service Support Group (Forward) discovered 15 roadside bombs located one kilometer north of Hit," the Marines said. "Thirteen of the bombs were found within 800 meters of each other on both sides of the road. "The insurgents had attempted to attach several of the bombs together in order to make a larger explosion and increase the blast radius of the bombs. The Marines followed a wire from the bombs to a nearby school house, where all the explosives were connected," the Marines said. Coalition commanders otherwise described the resistance encountered as "light." There have been no reported deaths among the U.S. or Iraqi forces. One suspected insurgent was killed earlier in the operation. Coalition forces have been conducting "cordon and knock" operations in Hit. The Marines said residents there have been compensated for about $3,500 for damage caused by forces who sometimes have had to break into buildings during their searches. The Marines said 23 people are being detained for questioning, most involving weapons caches. South of Hit, and also along the Euphrates, Marines in Ramadi said that Iraqi security forces and U.S. soldiers have found "seven weapons caches, a car-bomb factory and a roadside bomb-making factory." The "car-bomb factory with a vehicle" was found at an automotive repair shop "rigged with explosives." A bomb-making factory with 45 fully prepared roadside bombs was found in another location. Authorities were questioning "two foreign males" found near one of the weapons caches "in connection to bomb making." Other developments
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