Baghdad, Iraq – A suicide bomber boarded a minibus and blew himself up Monday in a Shiite-dominated neighborhood of the Iraqi capital, killing 20 people and injuring 18, police and hospital officials said.
It was the latest sectarian salvo to shake the foundations of Iraqi society and government. At least 43 other Iraqis were reported killed in bombings, shootings and other violence across the country.
The U.S. military reported the deaths of four soldiers, bringing to at least 31 the number of troops killed in Iraq this month. Two died and two were injured Monday morning when a roadside bomb exploded in Baghdad, the military said. Two others were killed and two injured in a Sunday suicide car bombing in Salahuddin province, north of the capital.
Four British troops were killed and three wounded the same day when an explosive device hit a boat patrolling the Shatt al-Arab waterway, the military said. It was the first time British forces near Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, were targeted in this way, a spokesman said.
The bomb in Baghdad’s northeast Shaab neighborhood ripped through a busy intersection where Nasir Hawi was selling cigarettes and soft drinks.
“There was a huge explosion that shook and dropped everything in my booth,” said Hawi, 35, propped up in bed in a crowded emergency ward, his head wrapped in bloodied bandages. “I saw more than six cars ablaze and several people, including women in abayas, on the ground.”
He sorrowfully listed five acquaintances killed in the blast, including a security guard and fellow vendors.
“This area has witnessed several other explosions,” he said. “But always the victims are innocent people who are trying to make a living. May Allah curse the perpetrators of such deeds.”
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, faces mounting U.S. and domestic pressure to rein in the sectarian violence, root out corruption and improve services.
He told lawmakers Sunday that he planned major changes to his Cabinet and a crackdown against militias blamed for many of the killings, including Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army and another force operated by key members of the Shiite political bloc that helped put him in power.
Update
Developments: President Bush met Monday with members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group that is assessing options. Bush said he wouldn’t “prejudge” the report the panel will issue, but he said the goal remains an Iraq “that can sustain, govern and defend itself and serve as an ally in this war on terror.”
U.S. forces turned over command of one of the most dangerous sections of Baghdad to the Iraqi army on Monday – part of a gradual transition that would allow U.S. forces to begin pulling out. The Iraqi troops took charge of the Sunni-dominated southern part of the capital after months of training and joint missions with American forces.
U.S. forces raided the homes of followers of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Monday night, then called in U.S. jets that were firing rockets on the northwest Baghdad neighborhood, residents said. An aide to the cleric said nine people were killed. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
Another Marine charged with kidnapping and murdering an unarmed Iraqi civilian in the town of Hamdania has agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges, his attorney said Monday. That means four of the eight U.S. troops charged now have struck plea bargains.
Steve Immel, attorney for Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate Jr., 21, of Matlock, Wash., said his client would plead guilty to charges of aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice. He said the original charges, including murder and kidnapping, would be dismissed.
Casualties: Police said Monday that a bomb detonated on a minibus in northeast Baghdad’s Shaab neighborhood, killing 20 people. Hours earlier, Mohammed al-Ban, a cameraman for Iraq’s independent al-Sharqiyah satellite television, was gunned down while leaving his home in the northern city of Mosul. His wife was wounded, police said.
At least 42 other Iraqis were reported killed in other violence across the country.
Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying a bodyguard for Vice President Adel al-Mahdi in western Baghdad, killing the bodyguard and wounding two other people.
In Baqubah, gunmen in a speeding car shot dead three people walking near a market, and others attacked a police checkpoint, killing one policeman and wounding two others, police said.
The U.S. military reported the deaths of four American soldiers.
