A suicide bomber killed five U.S. soldiers as they chatted with shop owners while on a foot patrol in central Baghdad on Monday, the deadliest attack on American forces in the heavily fortified capital in more than eight months.
The bombing, just four days after nearly simultaneous blasts killed scores of people in a vibrant Shiite commercial district, again showed the insurgents’ ability to strike inside a capital secured by hundreds of security checkpoints, U.S.-funded neighborhood watch groups and hundreds of miles of blast walls that surround buildings and cordon off districts.
The U.S. military insists that recent attacks do not point to a growing trend in violence and continues to tout the security gains achieved over the past year.
At any rate, the push over the past six months to place U.S. bases inside neighborhoods and get soldiers out of their armored vehicles increases the Americans’ vulnerability to attacks. Although the face-to-face contact from foot patrols builds goodwill, it gives suicide bombers, who often slip past security vehicle checkpoints by walking, better access to striking soldiers.
On Monday, the soldiers were walking in a shopping district of the predominantly Sunni Mansour neighborhood when a man detonated his explosives about 30 feet away, said a police officer who witnessed the attack. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk to the media.
Four of the soldiers died at the scene, and the fifth died later from wounds, the military said. Three other American soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter were wounded in the attack, which military spokesman Maj. Mark Cheadle said was ” reported to us as a suicide bomber.” Iraqi police said two civilians were also killed.
It was the deadliest attack against the U.S. military since Jan. 28, when five soldiers were killed in a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul.
The last time five soldiers were killed in a single attack in the capital was June 28, 2007, when insurgents launched a coordinated attack on a combat patrol, detonating a roadside bomb, then firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Mansour, the scene of Monday’s attack, was a hotbed for al-Qaeda in Iraq as recently as a year ago, until many Sunni militants switched sides to join U.S. forces against the terrorist group.
According to military figures, attacks in Baghdad are down 75 percent from June until late February thanks in part to Sunnis’ turning against al-Qaeda, the Americans increasing troop levels and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s ordering his militia to observe a cease-fire.
The suicide bombing Monday in Baghdad was one of several deadly al-Qaeda-signature attacks across the country.
Earlier in the day, a female suicide bomber killed a U.S.-backed Sunni leader who had formed a group to fight against al-Qaeda insurgents in central Iraq. The man’s guards ushered the bomber into his home without searching her.
In southern Iraq, police found the bullet-riddled body of Basra’s only neurologist a day after he was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen.
Dr. Khalid Nasir al-Miyahi had received a phone call Sunday night from someone asking him to return to his clinic for an urgent medical issue, according to a colleague who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. When his family did not hear from him hours later, they notified police, the colleague said.
According to figures from the Iraqi Health Ministry released this year, 618 medical employees, including 132 doctors, as well as medics and other health-care workers, have been killed nationwide since 2003.
