BAGHDAD — In signs of continued instability, suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgents launched a surprise attack on Iraqi troops and armed civilians in the southern part of the city Thursday, sparking a fierce firefight that left at least two dozen people dead, Iraqi army sources and local Sunni leaders said.
In separate attacks later in the day, police said insurgents fired 10 mortar rounds at the city’s heavily fortified Green Zone, where the U.S. Embassy and many Iraqi government offices are located. There were no reports of casualties.
Together, the incidents showed the tenuous state of security in Baghdad, where U.S. and Iraqi officials lately have been heralding weeks of relative calm as evidence of a turnabout in the capital’s sectarian warfare.
Thursday’s display of aggression toward the Green Zone followed several weeks of calm in the enclave, which in turn followed months of almost daily bombardments.
Jihad abu Ali, a local Sunni leader who said his group of armed civilians, known as a “concerned citizens group,” took part in Thursday’s fighting against the insurgents in southern Baghdad, said about 70 insurgents attacked the Hur Rijab area, using rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons.
Abu Ali said four of his fighters were killed, along with three Iraqi army soldiers and at least five civilians. He said his fighters were able to kill 15 to 20 insurgents.
Violence also shattered the calm in other parts of the country Thursday. In the northern city of Mosul, a car bomb targeting an Iraqi police patrol killed two civilians and wounded 12 others, police there said.
