Oct. 6, 2005
More Attacks Ahead Of Iraq Vote
Suicide, Roadside Bombs Kill At Least 13, Including U.S. Soldier
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Play CBS Video Video 'Chilling' Al Qaeda Letter The U.S. obtained a 13-page letter written by Osama bin Laden's deputy, outlining with what one senior official calls "chilling clarity" al Qaeda's strategy for Iraq and beyond, reports David Martin.
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Video Bush Raises Iraq War Stakes President Bush raised the stakes in the war on terror, warning that failure in Iraq could ignite a Communist-style domino effect. John Roberts reports.
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Video Bush Challenges Iraq Critics As Iraqis prepare to vote on the Constitutional referendum in the coming week, President Bush said pulling out of the country would only embolden terrorists around the world. Susan Roberts reports.
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An Iraqi woman hurries away from a battle between U.S. forces and insurgents (AP)
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Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, left, meets with the Iraq President Jalal Talabani (AP)
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Interactive American Heroes Profiles of U.S. soldiers who've died in Iraq, a look at the war's toll and pictures of mourning.
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Interactive Battle For Iraq The government, the insurgency, key players, background and photos.
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Interactive Attacks Map Details on the insurgency and terrorism that has continued to take lives since the fall of Saddam.
Under U.S. and U.N. pressure, parliament on Wednesday reversed its last-minute electoral law changes, which would have ensured passage of the new constitution in the Oct. 15 referendum, but which the United Nations called unfair.
Sunni Arab leaders who had threatened a boycott because of the changes said they were satisfied with Wednesday's reversal and are now mobilizing to defeat the charter at the polls. But some warned they could still call a boycott to protest major U.S. offensives launched over the past week in western Iraq, the Sunni heartland.
In other developments:
Every group of newly-trained Iraq recruits hides spies, and while the vetting process is improving, there is no way to ensure everyone is loyal, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey (video). One Pentagon source estimates that as many as one in five of the recruits in the Sunni Triangle could be infiltrators.
Like other Iraqis, Lamia Dhyab picked up her copy of the draft constitution at the small shop where she presents her ration card in south Baghdad each month to get government-subsidized food for her family.
"We are going to read the draft constitution. If we like it, we will vote yes. If we don't, we'll say no," said Dhyab, who was wearing a chador, the traditional head-to-toe black outfit that Muslim women often wear.
She was lined up with other Iraqis in her neighborhood of Dora, a southern part of the capital that has been hard hit by insurgent attacks.
Thursday's two deadliest attacks in Baghdad involved suicide car bombers.
One hit a police patrol near the Oil Ministry, killing nine Iraqis and wounding nine, police said. The attack occurred on Palestine Street in eastern Baghdad, about 400 yards from the ministry, said police Capt. Nabil Abdul Qadir. The dead included five policemen and four civilians, and the wounded four policemen and five civilians, he said.
Earlier Thursday, in Karrada, another part of eastern Baghdad, a suicide car bomb exploded near a convoy of private security contractors on Nidhal Street, killing three Iraqi bystanders and wounding six others, said police Maj. Mohammed Yunis. One of the four white SUVs in the convoy was damaged, but none of the foreigners in them were hurt.
In northern Baghdad, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. Army patrol in northern Baghdad, killing one soldier, the military said, said U.S. Sgt. 1st Class David Abrams, a military spokesman.
That attack raised to at least 1,945, the number of U.S. military members who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
At least 283 people have been killed by insurgents in Iraq in the past 11 days.
The insurgent attacks — often targeting Shiite Muslims — are aimed at wrecking the referendum. Al Qaeda in Iraq, which has declared "all-out war" on Shiites, has called for stepped-up violence during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month now under way.
©MMV CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
