World

Bomb After Bomb In Iraq

May 31, 2006 / 8:55 AM EDT / CBS/AP

It's another bloody day in Iraq.

A parked car packed with explosives hit a police patrol in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Wednesday, killing at least five policemen and wounding 14, including a senior officer, as violence continued unabated after one of the bloodiest days in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, car bombs and mortar attacks killed at least 54 people across Iraq. On Monday, another 40 people were killed in a series of bombings and attacks. Monday's death toll included CBS soundman James Brolan and cameraman Paul Douglas, who died in a bombing that critically wounded CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier, now being treated at a U.S. military hospital in Germany.

Not including the most recent attacks, at least 4,066 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence so far in 2006, according to Associated Press reports — which may not be complete because the reporting process does not cover the entire country. That figure includes 871 in May, surpassing the 801 killed in April.

Since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count, 2,467 U.S. military servicemen and women have been killed in Iraq, including a GI hit by the same bomb as Dozier, Brolan and Douglas.

CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that in cities like Ramadi, west of Baghdad - everybody from the Marines under fire to the American ambassador agrees that the insurgents and terrorists are not just making life miserable — they are in control.

It is concerning American commanders so much, reports Martin, that 1,500 more combat troops have been ordered into western Iraq in an attempt to establish some semblance of government control.

It is the second time this year General George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has called in reinforcements. In March, 700 troops were sent into Iraq to help hold down sectarian violence. They were supposed to remain 30 days, but they are still there.

In other recent developments in Iraq:

Saddam Hussein's defense team played a video in court Wednesday, said it proved perjury by a prosecution witness, and demanded that the trial be halted to allow an investigation into the veracity of all of the prosecution's witnesses. The demand follows Tuesday's defense allegation that nearly two dozen of the Shiites that Saddam is accused of killing are still alive. The defense also says the trial is unfair because one of their witnesses has been killed and others are afraid to testify, fearing they, too, will be killed.

An Australian military vehicle was damaged by a roadside bomb in southern Iraq Wednesday, according to coalition sources cited by the Kyodo News agency.

A quarterly assessment from the Defense Department says Sunni insurgents will probably stay strong through the rest of the year. But it notes the Iraqi army is getting stronger, too, and taking the security lead in more places. The report says one of the reasons for the insurgency's resilience is increased collaboration between its leaders and al Qaeda terrorists. The report also says there have been few economic gains or improvements in basic services like electricity.

Family members of two Marines say their sons were ordered to photograph and clean up corpses of unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha that members of their unit are suspected of killing, and they have been traumatized ever since. In separate interviews with The Associated Press on Monday, the parents of Lance Cpl. Andrew Wright, 20, and Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones, 21, said their sons told them the events of last November remain seared in their memories. The details of what happened are still murky, and are under investigation.

Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim Ali said 249 prisoners who had been suspected of ties to the insurgency were released from three U.S. detention centers. They were part of a group of 2,000 cleared for release by a joint committee from the Justice, Interior and Human Rights ministries, as well as Americans, Ali said.

An Emirati diplomat held hostage in Iraq has been released without ransom, Emirati authorities said Tuesday. Naji Rashid al-Nuaimi, 28, the first secretary at the United Arab Emirates Embassy, was taken hostage more than two weeks ago by gunmen who shot and killed his Sudanese driver. The officials said al-Nuaimi was in good health and at the Emirates' embassy in Baghdad.

The bodies of two U.S. Marines missing after a helicopter crashed in western Iraq over the weekend have been recovered, the military said Tuesday. The U.S. Marine Corps AH-1 Cobra helicopter from 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing was on a maintenance test flight when it went down Saturday in the volatile western region of Anbar. The military said hostile fire was not suspected as the cause, but the crash was under investigation.

The Iraqi government identified the suspected terrorist captured Monday as Ahmed Hussein Dabash Samir al-Batawi and said he had confessed to hundreds of beheadings. He was arrested by a terrorist combat unit that also seized documents, cell phones and computers that contained information on other wanted terrorists and Islamic extremist groups, the prime minister's office said.

Also in the capital, a roadside bomb killed one police officer and wounded four others, and police found the bodies of three blindfolded and handcuffed men who apparently had been tortured and shot in the head. A decapitated body was discovered floating in the river about 35 miles south of the capital.

Police also said three members of al Qaeda in Iraq were killed during clashes south of Baghdad last week.

Tuesday's deadliest bomb struck in a popular market during the evening in Husseiniyah, about 20 miles north of Baghdad, killing at least 25 people and wounding 65, said Lt. Colonel Falah al-Mohamedawi, an Interior Ministry spokesman.

Police say they defused a second bomb in a car nearby.

In the southern city of Hillah, a car packed with explosives blew up at a dealership, killing 12 people and wounding 32.

A bomb hidden in a plastic bag detonated outside a bakery in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday night, killing at least nine people and injuring 10, al-Mohamedawi said.

In Baghdad, mortar rounds hit the heavily guarded Interior Ministry and a nearby park, killing two government employees.

A mortar round fired by remote control struck the Interior Ministry compound in central Baghdad, killing two female employees and wounding a policeman and two janitors, said police Capt. Mohammed Abdul-Ghani said. Another round landed in a city park, wounding two city workers, he said. The Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry was also attacked in April.

The violence came as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki held meetings aimed at finding new defense and interior ministers more than a week after his national unity government took office. Iraq's ethnic, sectarian and secular parties are struggling to agree on who should run the two crucial ministries, which oversee the army and the police.

Top Shiite officials said the U.S. Embassy had invited government representatives and the leaders of all the political blocs to a meeting, and they expected the names of new candidates to be discussed.

In the meantime, U.S. military commanders have moved about 1,500 combat troops from a reserve force in Kuwait into Anbar province to help local authorities establish order there. The province is an insurgent hotbed stretching from west of Baghdad to the Syrian border.

The military command described the new deployment as short-term. The plan is to keep the latest troops in Anbar no longer than four months, said one military official, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the move.

Parliament on Monday debated the violence in the capital and outlying provinces but failed to set up a commission to deal with the problem because of al-Maliki's inability to appoint ministers of defense and interior.

The Interior Ministry, which controls the police, has been promised to the Shiites. Sunni Arabs are to get the Defense Ministry, overseeing the army.

It is hoped the balance will enable al-Maliki to move ahead with a plan for Iraqis to take over all security duties in the next 18 months. He wants to attract army recruits from the Sunni Arab minority, which provides the core of the insurgency.

The U.S. Embassy said al-Maliki, Cabinet members and political leaders were to meet at a social gathering organized by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Some legislators said the matter of the unfilled Cabinet positions would be discussed.

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