Baghdad, Iraq – A suicide bomber slipped past security barriers to kill 12 people Thursday, the latest in a wave of attacks that have shown the resilience of insurgents in the face of a U.S.-led crackdown on major violence in Iraq’s capital.
The attack in a mostly Shiite district showed yet again the ability of insurgents to penetrate Baghdad’s heavy security presence, a day after more than 230 people died in the worst incident since President Bush announced his plan in January to increase U.S. troop levels in Iraq.
Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said an “open battle” was being waged for control of his nation.
Thursday’s attacker blew himself up next to a fuel tanker within 500 yards of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s home in the Karradah district. Talabani, a Kurd, was not believed to have been the target. Two Iraqi soldiers were among the dead, and 34 people were wounded.
U.S. commanders urged patience, saying the nine-week operation was still just beginning.
Three of the five brigades Bush ordered into Iraq to stem Baghdad violence have arrived, bringing the U.S. forces in the country to 146,000. Officials want the rest in place by June for a total of 160,000.
A Sunni insurgent coalition posted Web videos Thursday naming the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq as “minister of war” and showing the executions of 20 men it said were members of the Iraqi military and security forces.
The announcement unveiling an “Islamic Cabinet” for Iraq appeared to have multiple aims. One was to present the Islamic State of Iraq coalition as a “legitimate” alternative to the U.S.- backed, Shiite-led government – and to demonstrate it was growing in power despite the U.S. military push against insurgents.
At least 46 Iraqis were killed or found dead Thursday.
The U.S. announced three more troop deaths – two soldiers killed Wednesday by a roadside bomb north of the capital and another soldier killed the same day by small-arms fire in an attack in southwest Baghdad.
A U.S. military brigade began work last week on a 12-foot-high, 3-mile-long concrete wall to cut off one of Baghdad’s most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it.
U.S. commanders in northern Baghdad say the barrier will make it more difficult for suicide bombers and militia fighters from sectarian factions to attack one another and slip back to their home turf.
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
