Bomb Explodes In Baghdad Market

Insurgents in Iraq remained relentless as a car bomb exploded Saturday near a market outside of Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding 21.

The explosion occurred not long after Iraqi police announced the arrest of four people in connection with the suicide bombing of two mosques Friday. One of those in custody is said to be a would-be suicide bomber.

The Saturday morning bombing took place near the Diyala Bridge area just southeast of the Iraqi capital as dozens of people were shopping at the popular market, police Col. Nouri Ashour said. The dead included five women, he added.

Iraqi police and U.S. soldiers surrounded a house in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad after reports that al Qaeda in Iraq members were inside, said Brig. Said Ahmed al-Jubouri, the spokesman for the Mosul police.

Almost immediately a fierce fire fight broke out and three of the insurgents detonated explosives and killed themselves. Five more died fighting, while four police officers were also killed, he added.

Al-Jubouri said officials were attempting to identify the dead insurgents.

On Friday, two suicide bombers wandered into the Sheik Murad mosque and the Grand Mosque in the border town of Khanaqin during noon prayers and detonated explosives strapped to their bodies, police and survivors said.

Reported death tolls ranged from 76, provided by Kurdish officials, to at least 100, provided by police. Hospital officials said Friday that 74 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the largely Kurdish town, about 90 miles northeast of Baghdad.

It was the deadliest attack since Sept. 29, when three suicide car bombers struck in the mostly Shiite town of Balad just north of Baghdad, killing at least 99 people.

A security officer in Khanaqin, who asked not to be identified because of the nature of his job, said four people were arrested following the blasts, three were strangers who came from outside the town and the fourth was a third suicide bomber who was found near the scene.

Khanaqin police had received information from the authorities in nearby Baqouba about a possible suicide bomber in the town, but it came just minutes before the attacks, he added.

The blast ripped down part of the roof of the Grand Mosque and heavily damaged the other place of worship. At sunset, dozens of people were still searching the rubble for missing family members and friends. Others collected shredded copies of the Muslim holy book, the Quran.

One of the survivors, Omar Saleh, said he was on his knees bowing in prayer when the bomb exploded at the Grand Mosque.

"The roof fell on us and the place was filled with dead bodies," Saleh, 73, said from his hospital bed.

American soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division sent medical specialists and supplies to the town, located about 6 miles from the Iranian border.

The attack came just hours after two car bombs exploded outside the Hamra hotel Friday, in the second attack against a compound housing foreign journalists in the Iraqi capital in less than a month.

The attack began at 8:12 a.m. when a white van exploded along the concrete blast wall protecting the compound, blowing a hole in the barrier. Less than a minute later, a water tanker packed with explosives plowed through the breach in an apparent bid to reach the hotel buildings.

The latest attacks in Khanaqin and Baghdad have brought to at least 1,617 the number of Iraqis killed since the Shiite-led government took power April 28, according to an Associated Press count. At least 3,429 have been injured.

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