Iraq Car Bomb Kills At Least 20
A car bomb exploded Monday night in a commercial district of Iraq's second-largest city of Basra, killing at least 20 people and wounding about 40, a police official said.
The blast went off about 8:30 p.m. in an area filled with shops and restaurants, many of them packed with people out for the evening during Ramadan festivities, Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaidi.
Al-Zaidi, who said 20 were killed and 40 were wounded, added that the number of deaths was expected to rise.
Witnesses reported scenes of chaos and rescue vehicles raced to the scene. Dazed survivors, their clothing stained with blood, stumbled in the darkness or wept in despair.
Body parts could be seen on the street, the witnesses said.
Also Monday, six American soldiers were killed in separate attacks and U.S. military officials said a Marine died in action the day before.
The deaths made October the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq since January.
In other developments:
In the worst attack Monday against U.S. troops, four Task Force Baghdad soldiers died when their patrol struck a roadside bomb in Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad, the military said.
Two other soldiers from the 29th Brigade Combat Team were also killed in a bombing Monday near Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. The U.S. military also said a Marine was killed Sunday near Amiriyah, 25 miles west of Baghdad.
Those deaths raised the death toll for October to more than 90, the highest monthly total since January when 107 American service members died. The latest deaths brought to 2,025 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003.
Elsewhere, U.S. jets bombed two insurgent "safe houses" near the Syrian border Monday in an attack aimed at al Qaeda in Iraq, and coalition forces swept through several areas of Baghdad, taking nearly 100 suspected militants into custody, the U.S. command said.
Two separate mortar attacks in Baghdad and northern Iraq killed three people and wounded 11.
In other strikes in the capital, two car bombs and five drive-by shootings killed five Iraqis and wounded 10, police said. The body of an Iraqi civilian who had been kidnapped and killed in captivity also was found dumped on a city street.
The violence was the latest in a string of attacks by Sunni-led militants. On Sunday, gunmen killed Ghalib Abdul-Mahdi, the brother of Shiite Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, and a top trade ministry official escaped assassination in another part of the capital.
The U.S. command also announced Sunday that a Marine died of injuries suffered the day before in a roadside bombing west of the capital.
Marines supported by warplanes and helicopters have been raiding targets in towns and villages near Iraq's desolate border with Syria in an effort to disrupt Iraqi and foreign insurgents.
Early Monday, U.S. jets attacked a "safe house" apparently being used by a senior al Qaeda in Iraq cell leader in Obeidi, a border town 185 miles west of Baghdad, the military said. The jets also used precision-guided munitions to attack a second house suspected of being a base for attacks against American and Iraqi forces, the U.S. command said.
Its statement mentioned no casualties and did not identify the al Qaeda in Iraq leader by name. At the local hospital, Dr. Ahmed al-Ani claimed 40 Iraqis, including 12 children, were killed in the attack. But the claim could not be independently verified.
U.S. officials also reported a Saudi-born al Qaeda militant known only as Abu Saud was killed by coalition forces Saturday near Obeidi.
On Friday and Saturday, U.S. and Iraqi forces conducted several raids in Baghdad, detaining 98 suspected insurgents and finding large weapons caches, the U.S. command said Monday.
One cache, found hidden in a building in a second-story crawl space beneath a bathtub, included 13 AK-47 assault rifles, three machine guns, 20 AK-47 barrels, a pistol, U.S. currency and an ammunition stockpile, the military said.
At 9 a.m. Monday, two mortar rounds hit the Hamah intersection near Iraq's Oil Ministry in central Baghdad, killing a civilian, wounding four, and damaging several vehicles, said police officer Mohammed Abdul Ghani.
In and around Baqouba city, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, mortar rounds killed two soldiers and wounded seven, and a drive-by shooting killed an elderly Iraqi man and wounded two police officers, officials said.
Recently insurgents, who often use roadside bombs and suicide bombers in their attacks, appear to have been firing more mortars and rocket-propelled grenades in their strikes.