Bomb blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities Monday, killing 60 security forces and civilians in the worst attack this year, one that highlighted al-Qaida’s resolve and ability to wreak havoc.
The bloodbath comes less than two weeks after Iraqi officials said they would be open to a small number of U.S. forces staying in the country past a Dec. 31 withdrawal deadline.
The blasts were coordinated to go off Monday morning and included parked car bombs, roadside bombs, a suicide bomber driving a vehicle that rammed into a police station and even bombs attached to lightpoles.
The scope of the violence — seven explosions went off in different towns in Diyala province alone — emphasized that insurgents are still able to carry out attacks despite repeated crackdowns by Iraqi and U.S. forces.
Iraqis were furious at security officials and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
“Where is the government with all these explosions across the country? Where is al-Maliki? Why doesn’t he come to see?” said Ali Jumaa Ziad, a shopowner in Kut, where the worst of the violence occurred. Ziad was brushing pieces of human flesh from the floor and off equipment in his shop.
Al-Maliki’s spokesman and the military spokesman did not answer telephone calls.
Twin explosions rocked the market in Kut, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, where Ziad works.
Police spokesman Lt. Col. Dhurgam Mohammed Hassan said the first bomb went off in a freezer used to keep drinks cold. As rescuers and onlookers gathered, a parked car bomb exploded; 35 people were killed and 64 injured.
Police sealed off the area where human flesh was scattered on the ground and bloodstained walls were punctured by shrapnel.
Earlier this month, Iraqi political leaders announced they would begin negotiations with the U.S. to determine whether to keep a small number of American forces in the country past Dec. 31.
All U.S. troops must leave by the end of this year, but both Iraqi and U.S. officials have expressed concern about the ability of Iraqi forces to protect the country.
Theodore Karasik, a Middle East security expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analyst, said al-Qaida in Iraq is trying to disrupt the internal Iraqi political process and send a message to the Americans.
“It seems that al-Qaida in Iraq is playing a propaganda game at the same time it’s trying to show that it can still carry out deadly violence,” Karasik said. “If the U.S. extends its military presence, al-Qaida in Iraq can use it as a tool by saying, ‘Look, the Americans have reversed their decision to leave and are staying on as occupiers.’ They could use this as a justification for more attacks.”
In Diyala province, seven bombs went off in the capital of Baquba and towns nearby, said Faris al-Azawi, the province’s health spokesman. Five soldiers were killed in Baquba while five people were killed in other attacks around the province.
Just outside the holy city of Najaf, a suicide car bomber plowed his vehicle into a checkpoint outside a police building, said Luay al-Yassiri, head of the Najaf province security committee.
Police opened fire when the driver refused to stop, and then the vehicle exploded. Al-Yassiri said four people were killed and 32 injured. Firefighters sprayed water on burning cars while a body covered with a red sheet was loaded into a police vehicle.
Outside the nearby city of Karbala, a parked car bomb near a police station killed three policemen and injured 14 others, according to two police officers.
In the northern city of Tikrit, two men wearing explosives belts drove into a heavily guarded government compound wearing military uniforms, which helped them avoid notice, said Mohammed al-Asi, the provincial spokesman.
The men parked their vehicle and walked to a building where the anti-terrorism police work. When the men approached the building, the guards ordered them to stop and opened fire. One bomber was killed but the other got inside, blew himself up and killed three people, al-Asi said.
It was another embarrassing security breach for security officials at the compound. Earlier this year, insurgents penetrated the compound’s security and attacked a mosque where prominent officials were praying.
In the northern city of Kirkuk, a car bomb exploded next to a police patrol, injuring four police officers. About 30 minutes later, a motorcycle with a bomb planted inside it exploded, killing one person. Late Sunday, four bombs also blew up near a Syrian Orthodox Church in Kirkuk. No one was injured in the attack which damaged the church walls.
In Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded near a convoy carrying officials from the Ministry of Higher Education, police and health officials said. Eight people were wounded, the officials said. The minister was not in the convoy.
According to police and hospital officials around the country, other attacks included:
– A parked car bomb targeting a police patrol in Iskandiriyah killed two people.
– One person was killed when bombs strapped to lightpoles in the northern city of Mosul exploded.
– A parked car bomb exploded near an Iraqi military patrol in Taji north of Baghdad, killing one person.
– Sixteen people were injured in the city of Balad when a roadside bomb went off near a fuel truck.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Violence has dropped considerably in Iraq since the heyday of the war. But the persistence of violence in Iraq, albeit at a lower level, underscores the Iraq’s precarious situation.
Salaheddin reported from Baghdad; Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
More than 600 ancient artifacts that were smuggled out of Iraq, recovered and lost again have been found misplaced among kitchen supplies in storage at the prime minister’s office, the antiquities minister said Monday.
The 638 items include pieces of jewelry, bronze figurines and cylindrical seals from the world’s most ancient civilizations that were looted from the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. After their recovery, the U.S. military delivered them last year to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office, where they were misplaced and forgotten about.
The artifacts, packed in sealed boxes, were misplaced because of poor coordination between the Iraqi government ministries in charge of recovering and handling archaeological treasures, said Tourism and Antiquities Minister Qahtan al-Jabouri.
He blamed “inappropriate handover procedures” but did not go into detail.
Iraqi and world culture officials have for years struggled to retrieve looted treasures but with little success.
Thieves carted off thousands of artifacts from Iraqi museums and archaeological sites in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion and in earlier years of war and upheaval. Many items ended up abroad. Collections that were stolen or destroyed at the National Museum chronicled some 7,000 years of civilization in Mesopotamia, including the ancient Babylonians, Sumerians and Assyrians.
Only a fraction of the items have been recovered.
Authorities only realized the items misplaced at the prime minister’s office were missing when they began putting together a public display of recently recovered artifacts in Baghdad on Sept. 7.
The prime minister’s office investigated, located the items and handed them over to the Antiquities Ministry on Sunday, al-Jabouri said.
“Sealed boxes were located in a storage among kitchen supplies,” al-Jabouri said at a news conference. “They were opened and artifacts were found inside.”
So far, 5,000 items stolen since 2003 have been recovered. More than 15,000 pieces from the National Museum are still missing.
Bombers and gunmen killed at least 56 Iraqis in more than two dozen attacks across the country Wednesday, mostly targeting security forces and rekindling memories of the days when insurgents ruled the streets.
The attacks made August the deadliest month for Iraqi policemen and soldiers in two years, and came a day after the U.S. declared the number of U.S. troops had fallen to fewer than 50,000, their lowest level since the war began in 2003.
Powerful blasts targeting security forces struck where they are supposed to be the safest, turning police stations into rubble and bringing down concrete walls erected to protect them from insurgents.
“Where is the protection, where are the security troops?” said Abu Mohammed, an eyewitness to a car bombing near Baghdad’s Adan Square that killed two passers-by. “What is going on in the country?”
Iraq’s foreign minister said insurgents are attempting to sow as much chaos as possible, as lawmakers struggle to form a new government and Americans withdraw troops.
“Here you have a government paralysis, you have a political vacuum … you have the U.S. troop withdrawal,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said. “And, in such environment, these terrorist networks flourish.”
But like most attacks here, they are met with outrage on the streets and condemnation from government officials. Authorities, however, are virtually powerless in the face of the insurgents’ threat.
At least 265 security personnel — Iraqi military, police and police recruits, and bodyguards — have been killed from June through August, compared to 180 killed in the previous five months, according to an Associated Press count.
In August, nearly 5 Iraqi security personnel on average have been killed every day so far.
These numbers are considered a minimum, based on AP reporting. The actual number is likely higher, as many killings go unreported or uncounted.
That rise in deaths coincided with the drawdown of U.S. troops. American officials said on Tuesday that the number of troops fell below 50,000 — a step toward a full withdrawal by the end of 2011.
The scale and reach of Wednesday’s attacks in 14 cities and towns underscored insurgent efforts to prove their might against security forces and political leaders charged with running and keeping stability in Iraq.
“The insurgents hope to regain the initiative once the Americans are gone,” said John Pike, the director of the military information website GlobalSecurity.org.
“The longer there’s a stalemate between the Shiite and Sunni politicians,” Pike said, “the greater the opportunity for the extremists to translate political violence into political influence.”
The deadliest attack came in Kut, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber blew up a car inside a security barrier between a police station and the provincial government’s headquarters.
Police and hospital officials said 19 people died, 15 of them policemen. An estimated 90 people were wounded.
In northern Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb in a parking lot behind a police station, killing 15 people, including six policemen.
Police and hospital officials said another 58 were wounded in the explosion that left a crater three yards (meters) wide and trapped people beneath the rubble of felled houses nearby.
A police officer was also killed in Mosul where gunmen attacked a police checkpoint and one person was killed in the city of Beiji, in Iraq’s northern province of Salahuddin.
Iraqi police and soldiers have always been prime targets for insurgents trying to destabilize the country and intimidate new recruits from joining the security services.
Since Iraq’s March 7 elections failed to produce a clear winner, U.S. officials have feared that competing political factions could stir up widespread violence.
Iraqi leaders have failed to end the political impasse.
Iraqi and U.S. officials alike acknowledge growing frustration throughout the nation nearly six months after the vote and say that politically motivated violence could undo security gains made over the past few years.
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts but they bore the hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq, which is known to use car bombs and suicide attackers.
For ordinary Iraqis and policemen on the front line, the blasts brought back memories of the dark days of 2006 and 2007 when insurgents, not Iraqi police or soldiers, reigned.
“These attacks are taking us back to when the terrorists had the ability to launch many attacks in different areas,” said Taha Ahmed al-Ajili, a 34-year-old policeman in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown just north of Baghdad.
In Tikrit, a roadside bomb killed a policeman on patrol and wounded another.
Al-Ajili said he feared people would blame what he described as poorly armed policemen and soldiers for the lack of security. He said the security forces are doing their best.
Five others, including an Iraqi soldier and a police officer, were killed in small bursts of violence in Baghdad.
From the northern Iraqi city of Mosul to the holy Shiite shrine town of Karbala to the oil city of Basra, scattered bombings and shootings killed an additional 14 people — including 6 security forces — and injured scores more.
A senior Iraqi intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media, raised the possibility that some of the attackers had inside help.
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Associated Press Writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Lara Jakes and Rebecca Santana in Baghdad and AP researcher Brooke Lansdale in New York contributed to this report.
Two bombings and a drive-by shooting killed eight people Monday, a reminder of Iraq’s ongoing instability on a day when President Barack Obama planned to outline progress toward the impending end of U.S. military operations in the country.
The latest violence and government figures showing that July was the deadliest month for Iraqis in more than two years revived persistent questions about the readiness by Iraqi security forces to take over from the Americans as the U.S. military draws down its forces and ends all combat operations at the end of the month.
They also confirm the widely spread belief that insurgents are taking advantage of a political impasse over forming a new government after a March 7 parliamentary election failed to produce a clear winner.
“Make no mistake: Our commitment in Iraq is changing, from a military effort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats,” Obama said in excerpts released ahead of a speech he will deliver later Monday.
The U.S. has repeatedly insisted Iraq is stable enough to proceed with the troop drawdown on schedule and violence has dramatically declined in Iraq since 2008. But attacks remain a daily occurrence, especially in Baghdad.
The U.S. plans to draw its forces in Iraq down to 50,000 by the end of this month and the last American soldier will leave by the end of next year. There are about 65,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq.
In the worst incident on Monday, suspected al-Qaida militants blew up the house of a policeman west of Baghdad and killed him, his wife and 4-year-old daughter.
The policeman’s house was blown up before dawn in the Karmah district outside the city of Fallujah while the family was sleeping, police and hospital officials said. Seven other family members, including four of the policeman’s sons, were wounded in the blast, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The police officials said they suspected al-Qaida militants were behind the attack. The militants have been targeting policemen and members of anti-al-Qaida Sunni militias, shaking the increasingly fragile security situation.
Separate attacks in Baghdad, including one targeting police, killed five more and wounded 15.
Police officials said a roadside bomb apparently targeting a police patrol missed and killed three civilians traveling in a car and wounded eight bystanders in the western part of Baghdad.
Shortly after midnight, police and hospital officials said gunmen in a car opened fire at a cafe in Baghdad’s Shiite district of Sadr City, killing two people and wounding seven.
Residents said the attack may have been the work of vigilantes angered by suspected drug use at the cafe.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Figures released by Iraqi authorities over the weekend showed that July was the deadliest month for Iraqis — 535 killed — since May 2008 when 563 were killed.
The figures, dismissed by the U.S. military as too high, deepened concerns over Iraq’s precarious security even as the political deadlock persists and the United States continues to draw down on its forces.
Three suicide bombers — including one who sneaked his explosives into a hospital — killed at least 32 people Wednesday in a former insurgent stronghold northeast of Baghdad, sending a deadly signal ahead of Iraq’s weekend elections.
Deputy Interior Minister Iden Khalid said at a news conference afterward in Baghdad that security forces expect further attacks, but they will not interfere with Sunday’s vote.
The blasts struck Baqouba in quick succession, starting with a suicide car bomb that targeted a local government housing office near an Iraqi army facility, police spokesman Capt. Ghalib al-Karkhi said.
Within minutes, a second suicide car bomb exploded 200 yards (meters) down the street near the provincial government headquarters near many police and army personnel.
It was the final bomber, however, who caused the most casualties, by donning a military uniform, pretending to be wounded and riding an ambulance back to the hospital where he blew himself up, said al-Karkhi, killing many of the wounded from the first two bombs.
Police later safely detonated a fourth car bomb about 220 yards (200 meters) from the hospital.
Insurgents often carry out multiple bomb attacks to maximize damage as rescuers and others rush to the scene to help those affected.
The blasts come just ahead of Sunday’s crucial ballot to decide who will oversee the country as U.S. forces go home. At stake is whether Iraq can overcome the deep sectarian tensions that have divided the nation since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned of a possible uptick in violence ahead of the weekend as insurgents seek to disrupt elections. A message last month purported to be from the leader of the al-Qaida front in Iraq promised just that.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but such attacks have been the hallmark of al-Qaida in Iraq. Police said they arrested four suspects and imposed an open-ended curfew on the city as they search for more suspects.
Mahmoud Fadil, 50, said he was heading to the electric company office when he heard an explosion and was thrown through the air.
“I saw others covered with blood lying on the ground and some crying because of wounds caused by shrapnel and the huge blast,” he said.
Spokesman Fakhri al-Obaidi of the Diyala provincial council said the bombings reflected a “major security failure,” shattering a period of relative calm in the province that was once a byword for savage sectarian fighting.
“These attacks aim to terrify people from going to polling stations, but I am sure that people will insist on voting,” he said.
Wednesday’s bombings were the deadliest since the start of February, when a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a way station for Shiite pilgrims also in Diyala, killing 54 people. At the time, Baghdad’s top security official said extremists were adopting new methods to outwit bomb-detection squads such as stashing explosives deep inside the engines and frames of vehicles.
Iraqi authorities have vowed tight security in the capital and the rest of the country in the run-up to the election and on voting day. Generally a vehicle ban is imposed across Iraq, the airport will be shut down and hundreds of thousands of police and army troops deployed across the country.
Baqouba, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, is the mixed Shiite-Sunni provincial capital of Diyala. The whole area was a flashpoint in the insurgency, although it has quieted since 2007.
Also on Wednesday, a senior official in Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission said the results of Sunday’s vote would not be announced quickly because of the time required to collect votes from abroad and investigate any complaints. He did not estimate when results would be released.
In Babil province south of Baghdad, police arrested 33 people for distributing leaflets calling for a boycott of the election because it is “supervised by the Americans,” a police official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
While Sunni leaders did talk of a boycott, they appear to have discarded the idea, despite the ban of hundreds of candidates for alleged ties to Saddam Hussein’s former ruling Baath Party. The ban is supervised by a Shiite-led committee, widely believed to be biased against Sunnis.
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Associated Press Writer Muhieddin Rashad contributed to this report.
Iraqi security forces inspect the site where a suicide car bomber plowed his vehicle into a checkpoint outside a police building just outside the holy city of Najaf, Iraq, Monday, Aug. 15, 2011. Bomb blasts ripped through more than a dozen Iraqi cities Monday morning, killing scores of people _ most of them in the southern city of Kut _ in a wave of violence that shattered what had been a relatively peaceful holy month of Ramadan. The violence struck from the northern city of Kirkuk to the capital of Baghdad to the southern Shiite cities of Najaf, Kut and Karbala, and emphasized the persistent ability of insurgents to wreak havoc at a time when Iraqi officials are weighing whether they are able to protect the country without the assistance of American troops. (AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani)(Credit: AP) 