Suicide Blasts Mar Holiest Day

Attacks by eight suicide bombers in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq on Saturday killed at least 42 people, including a U.S. soldier, and injured 70 others, as Shiite Muslim worshippers around the country commemorated their holiest day of the year.

The attacks came one day after at least 36 people, mostly Shiites, were killed in a string of attacks.

It was unclear which of the attacks in Baghdad claimed the life of the soldier, whose identity was withheld by the military pending notification of his next of kin. Another soldier was wounded in the attack, which killed an Iraqi, the military said.

Saturday's bombings, during the religious festival of Ashoura, came despite stepped-up security around the country.

Ashoura marks the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the prophet Muhammad, in a seventh century battle for leadership of the Islamic world. The faithful recreate his suffering each year, reports CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, beating themselves with chains and swords. This battle marks start of the rift that divides Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Authorities had hoped to prevent a repeat of last year's attacks during Ashoura in which insurgents killed at least 181 people in twin blasts in Karbala and Baghdad.

The attacks also came as a five-member U.S. Congressional delegation that includes Senator Hillary Clinton, a Democrat from New York, met with Iraqi government officials in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

"The fact that you have these suicide bombers now, wreaking such hatred and violence while people pray, is to me, an indication of their failure," Clinton told reporters.

Authorities did make some progress against the insurgency, arresting two of its leaders, including a top aide to Iraqi al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

In western Baqouba, police chief Abdel Molan said his forces had arrested Haidar Abu Bawari, also know as the "Prince of the Holy Warriors." He was described as a top aide to al-Zarqawi and the man behind the insurgency in Baqouba.

The Iraqi government also said it had arrested one of the masterminds of the insurgency in the northern city of Mosul, Harbi Abdul Khudair al-Mahmoudi, 50, also known as Abu Nor. He was a former member of Saddam Hussein's Baath party, an announcement said.

Nearly all of Saturday's attacks inside Baghdad took place in the northern Adhamiya and Kadhimiya districts.

The attacks began before noon, when a bomber walked into a tent outside a Sunni mosque in western Baghdad and blew himself up, killing at least three people and injuring 10, police captain Hussain al-Ani said. About 50 people were inside the tent attending a funeral.

It was unclear why the attacker blew himself up inside a tent full of Sunnis, set up outside the Fatah Pasha mosque, but similar structures were set up outside Shiite mosques for the Ashoura celebration. Most attacks by insurgents — who are thought to be predominantly Sunni extremists — are aimed at Shiites.

The attacks then shifted to the northern districts, where a suicide bomber killed two Iraqi National Guardsmen.

Another suicide bomber then blew himself up in a public bus in Kadhimiya and killed one child and six adults. Another 10 people were injured.

Police officer Rashid Haroun said another suicide bomber blew himself up close to the Nada Mosque in Kadhimiya and seven Shiites, including three members of the national guard, were killed. That blast also injured 55 people, he said.

According to police captain Hazim Ibrahim, another two other suicide bombers died in the Kadhimiya area, one who blew himself up in the Judges Institute — an academic institution — but killed no one, and another who was apparently shot dead by U.S. troops.

In other attacks, a suicide bomber blew up a car outside an Iraqi National Guard base in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing one Iraqi guardsman and wounding another, police Col. Muthafar Shahab said. The suicide bomber also died in the blast, he said.

A suicide bomber also blew up his car at an Iraqi army checkpoint in Latifiya, 20 miles south of the capital, killing two Iraqi soldiers, an army officer said on condition of anonymity.

Mortar shells also landed in Doura, south of Baghdad, but police in the area had no immediate reports on casualties.

Gunmen also holed up in a building and opened fire on a funeral procession in Baghdad in which mourners were carrying coffins of some of the dead killed Friday in a bombing at the capital's al-Khadimain mosque, witnesses said.

Iraqi National Guard troops guarding the procession foiled that attack, returning fire and capturing one of the assailants, said Sgt. Ali Hussein. No casualties were reported.

Authorities, bracing for violence Saturday, stepped up security around the country. In Karbala, vehicle traffic — even motorcycles, bikes and pushcarts — was prohibited in an attempt to avert bomb attacks.

Insurgents staged five attacks on Friday leaving at least 36 people dead, and Shiites blamed radical Sunni Muslim insurgents, who have staged car bombs, shootings and kidnappings to try to destabilize Iraq's new government.

"Those infidel Wahhabis, those Osama bin Laden followers, they did this because they hate Shiites," said Sari Abdullah, a worshipper at Baghdad's al-Khadimain mosque who was injured by shrapnel from the explosion Friday. "They are afraid of us. They are not Muslims. They are infidels."

A militant Web site posted claims of responsibility from the al Qaeda affiliate in Iraq for the Baqouba bombing and an attack on a police checkpoint in Baghdad. There was no way to verify the claims.

After Friday's spate of suicide bombings, Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie, the national security adviser for the interim government, accused Jordanian-born terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and former Baath party members of trying to provoke a sectarian civil war.

"It's a paradoxical idea when they claim that they are fighting the infidels and at the same time, they kill Muslims during Friday prayers," he said.

He said Shiites, who make up 60 percent of the population, would not call for retaliation against the minority Sunnis who were favored by Saddam Hussein's regime.

"I am happy and proud of the people's reactions," al-Rubaie said. "Those who lost their sons and relatives didn't call for retaliation against Sunnis, which reflects their awareness and understanding of what is going on."

Walid al-Hilly, a leading figure of the Shiite-led Dawa Party, said the attacks would not stop the Shiites from trying to cooperate with Sunnis and other minorities in a new government.

"They kill unarmed men, women and children who want to glorify the ceremonies of Ashoura. These terrorist actions will not intimidate us nor make us change the way that we choose freedom from tyranny and oppression," he told Al-Jazeera television. "We chose the path of brotherhood, cooperation and unity between Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Shabak, Turkomen and Christians and all other sects."

The attacks made Friday the deadliest day since last month's elections for a new national assembly. The Shiite ticket, the United Iraqi Alliance, won 48 percent of the vote in Iraq's first democratic balloting, while Sunnis mostly did not vote.