Baghdad, Iraq – Gunfire, explosions and kidnappings picked up a withering pace across Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 60 people, including many police officers and Iraqi soldiers.
The violence that shook Baghdad and towns to the north appeared to intensify anger against U.S. soldiers and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for not stemming months of unrelenting bloodshed that has led to thousands of deaths and widening sectarian conflict.
Most of the attacks targeted Iraqi security forces and suggested a calculated effort to undermine al-Maliki’s new security plans.
The deadliest blast came near the industrial city of Beiji, where a roadside bomb exploded near a bus leaving an American base. The blast killed 23 Iraqi soldiers and wounded 20 others, said Brig. Gen. Qassim Musawi, a spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. The bus was heading to a training mission in Baghdad and most of the soldiers were from Mosul, Musawi said.
In Baghdad’s Karada neighborhood, three policemen, three Iraqi soldiers and eight civilians were killed when a car bomb exploded near a bank where security forces were picking up their monthly pay.
“I carried a burned body to put it in the ambulance, but I saw three legs and then I discovered that the burned body of the attacker was mixed with another body of a victim,” said Abu Muntathar Husseini, an eyewitness who lives in the area.
“The government should take better measures,” Muntathar Husseini said. “Only Iraqis are being killed. No Americans are hurt by these terrorist acts. Our government is not being courageous in dealing with this situation. We need to face the terrorists.”
Sectarian fighting, ambushes on security forces, kidnappings, assassinations and other violence are paralyzing many cities and towns.
The United States is planning to increase its troop strength in Baghdad from 9,000 to 13,000 soldiers to help flush death squads and militants from the city – a move U.S. and Iraqi leaders say will restore order to the rest of the nation.
The U.S. military announced two deaths: a soldier killed in fighting Tuesday in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar Province and another by a bomb Monday during a convoy south of Baghdad. British forces stationed in the south announced that one soldier was killed overnight Monday by a mortar attack near Baradhiya.
