Baghdad, Iraq – Militants targeted police recruits and shoppers rounding up last-minute sweets and delicacies Sunday for a feast to mark the end of the Ramadan holy month, the highlight of the Muslim year. At least 44 Iraqis were reported killed across the country.
The U.S. military announced the deaths of a Marine and four soldiers, raising to 83 the number of American service members killed in October – the highest monthly toll this year. The pace of U.S. deaths could make October the deadliest month in two years.
Three soldiers were killed Sunday, two by small-arms fire west of the capital and one by a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad, the military said. On Saturday, a Marine was killed during combat in restive Anbar province and another soldier died in fighting in Salahuddin province.
“There will be no holiday in Iraq,” said Abu Marwa, a 46- year-old Sunni Muslim father of three who owns a mobile-phone shop in the capital. “Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.”
In Sunday’s bloodiest attack, gunmen in five sedans ambushed a convoy of buses carrying police recruits near the city of Baqubah, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing at least 15 and wounding 25 others, said provincial police chief Maj. Gen. Ghassan al-Bawi. The recruits were returning home after an induction ceremony at a police base south of Baqubah.
A series of bombs also ripped through a Baghdad market and bakery packed with holiday shoppers, killing at least nine people and injuring dozens, police said. The attack came a day after a massive bicycle-bomb and mortar attack on an outdoor market killed 19 and wounded scores in Mahmudiyah, 20 miles south of the capital.
The Iraqi Islamic Party issued a statement blaming Shiite militiamen for the attack in Mahmudiyah. The Sunni organization claimed Shiite militiamen had killed 1,000 residents in the town since the start of the year.
The Bush administration has been wrestling to find new tactics to contain the bloodshed ahead of the U.S. midterm elections as lawmakers from both parties expressed wavering confidence in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s ability to come to grips with the rising bloodshed.
Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday that pressuring al-Maliki may not work because he does not have much clout.
“We keep saying, ‘Go to your Shiites, and get them straightened out, or the Sunnis, or divide the oil.’ And al-Maliki is saying, ‘There isn’t any group here that wants to talk about those things,”‘ Lugar said.
President Bush stood firm in his support for al-Maliki, saying he “has got what it takes to lead a unity government.” But he noted the urgency the new government faces to stop the killing.
The outcome of a White House meeting Saturday among Bush and his top security and military officials could become clearer when Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, are scheduled to conduct a joint news conference in Baghdad early in the week.
The Bush administration took issue with a report in The New York Times on Sunday that said Casey and Khalilzad were working on a plan that would outline milestones for disarming militias and meeting other political and economic goals.
The report said the blueprint, to be presented to al-Maliki by the end of this year, would not threaten Iraq with a withdrawal of U.S. troops. The White House said the article was not accurate and that the administration was constantly developing new tactics to help the Iraqi government defend itself and govern.
In all Sunday, at least 44 Iraqis were killed or their bodies were found dumped along roads or in the Tigris River. The timing and targets revealed a brutal disregard for the sanctity and meaning of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which is to Muslims what Christmas is to Christians.
After fasting from dawn to dusk for a month to become closer to God, families and friends gather on the holiday for sumptuous meals and children are given clothes and toys. Muslims also traditionally visit the graves of loved ones.
“I don’t think my family will go out and visit relatives this holiday,” said Hasnah Kadhim, a Shiite mother of four. “There are too many explosions.”
Sunday’s killings raised to at least 950 the number of Iraqis who have died in war-related violence this month, an average of more than 40 a day. The toll is on course to make October the deadliest month for Iraqis since April 2005, when The Associated Press began tracking the deaths.
Iraq update
Developments
Sunday marked a day of violence during preparations for the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The mayhem included a bomb that exploded under an unattended car in a Baghdad market and a bomb exploding near a bakery in eastern Baghdad.
The Iraqi Islamic Party, the country’s largest Sunni party, blamed a Saturday attack in Mahmudi yah on Shiite militias. American and Iraqi forces have been allowing the attacks to happen, the statement said.
Iraq’s former finance minister, Ali Allawi, alleged in a report aired Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that up to $800 million meant to equip the Iraqi army had been stolen from the government by former officials through fraudulent arms deals. He did not name the officials.
Casualties
An ambush of police recruits north of Baghdad and bombings aimed at shoppers killed at least 44 Iraqis, officials say.
The U.S. military announced the deaths of four soldiers and a Marine killed in four combat incidents. At least 83 U.S. troops have been killed in October, making it the deadliest month for Americans in Iraq since last November.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
