BAGHDAD — A man in a wheelchair laden with explosives persuaded security guards Monday to push him into an Iraqi operations center, where he blew himself up in an attack that killed the center’s deputy commander.
The infiltration, along with a U.S. report that insurgents used an adolescent to carry out a suicide attack against a mosque last week, was the latest indication that al-Qaeda in Iraq is expanding its tactics to avoid detection before a bombing.
The Iraqi military indefinitely banned all motorcycles, bicycles and carts from Baghdad’s streets Sunday, two days after a bomb hidden under a horse-drawn cart exploded downtown, killing three.
That attack came exactly one month after a suicide bomber pushing a cart packed with hidden explosives attacked a high school in Baqubah. And in an attack near Fallujah on Jan. 20, the bomber was a 15-year-old boy carrying a box of candy.
Women also have been used more frequently as bombers in recent months, including two with a history of psychiatric treatment who killed about 100 people in Baghdad on Feb. 1.
It remains unclear whether al-Qaeda has begun using teenagers and women because it has been unable to recruit new insurgents or because they are more difficult to detect.
About 100 Iraqis have been killed — or their bodies found — in the past two days, including at least 56 in a single blast. The attacks have mainly targeted the millions of Shiites engaged in a nationwide pilgrimage to a holy shrine in Karbala, where ceremonies culminate Wednesday.
Al-Qaeda has also been targeting fellow Sunni Arabs who have taken up arms against the militants and joined so-called awakening councils. Gunmen killed Sheik Khamis Ali al-Zobaie, a leader of the awakening council in the Dora neighborhood of southern Baghdad, and his son, said Mustafa Kamal al-Jubouri.
In the wheelchair attack, the man approached the main checkpoint to the operation room command in Samarra and said he needed to see the commander to ask for help. Guards pushed him through.
He was referred to the deputy commander instead after he said he was unable to walk up the stairs to see the commander.
