Baghdad, Iraq – A truck bomber attacked a revered Shiite shrine in the heart of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 78 people and wounding more than 200 in a resumption of Iraq’s relentless sectarian slaughter. The mosque’s turquoise dome survived, but the blast buried some worshipers and badly burned others.
Northeast of the capital, a force of 10,000 U.S. soldiers firing artillery and using heavily armored Stryker and Bradley Fighting Vehicles fought its way through western Baqubah and other al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Diyala province. U.S. helicopters and jet fighters flew cover.
In all, 142 people were killed or found dead in sectarian violence Tuesday, a toll reflecting carnage associated with the months before the U.S. security crackdown in the capital began Feb. 14.
Assessment in July
The Pentagon is required to issue an initial assessment of the operation next month, and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, will report in September. The Democrat-controlled Congress set those reporting deadlines to pressure the White House and American military leadership to make quick progress in curbing violence in Iraq so U.S. troops – now 155,000 – can be pulled away from the unpopular war.
U.S. commanders have said there will be positive results by September but that any return to normalcy requires years. President Bush has even spoken of the U.S. mission in Iraq in terms of the 50-plus-year American troop presence in South Korea.
Tuesday’s bombing was a setback. It was the deadliest single attack in Iraq since April 18, when at least 127 civilians were killed when a bomb detonated in a parked car at a mostly Shiite market in central Baghdad.
Police said a truck piled high with electric fans and air conditioners delivered the huge bomb at the Khulani mosque. The powerful explosion in the busy commercial district cut deep into Iraq’s Shiite community on just the second day after authorities lifted a four-day curfew.
The vehicle ban had been imposed to prevent revenge attacks after a bombing last week brought down twin golden minarets at the important Shiite al-Askariya shrine in Samarra, north of the capital.
Planned by “sick souls”
Tuesday’s bombing was presumed to have been carried out by a Sunni attacker because the target was a Shiite mosque. The Khulani mosque’s imam, Sheik Saleh al-Haidari, said the bombing was particularly deadly because worshipers were just leaving a prayer service.
“This attack was planned and carried out by sick souls,” al-Haidari told The Associated Press.
It also prompted anger at U.S. forces.
“The Americans know everything, they can do everything, they can repair the space shuttle without touching it – why do they let these things happen here in Iraq?” said Abu Muhammad, 55, one of the custodians of the bombed mosque.
The U.S. military operation in Diyala province, an al-Qaeda bastion, matched in size the force that American generals sent against the insurgent-held city of Fallujah 2 1/2 years ago. The operation began Monday, and by late Tuesday the military had reported only one American death, a Task Force Lightning soldier killed by an explosion near his vehicle. Two soldiers were wounded.
A second soldier from the 3rd Infantry Division died in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad on Monday, the military said in a second statement. Three were wounded in that attack. Earlier Tuesday, the military said a soldier was killed by small-arms fire during combat in eastern Baghdad on Monday.
The deaths brought to at least 3,530 the number of U.S. military personnel who have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003, according to an AP count.
The U.S. commander in the region, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, said a combined U.S.-Iraqi force of about 3,500 soldiers and police was operating in Baqubah proper, a city of about 300,000.
“We began last night with large-scale air assaults moving by helicopter to surprise the enemy with a large ground assault before daylight. We’ve had initial good success. … There’s a lot of work left to be done,” he told CNN.
The New York Times contributed to this report.
