IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Al-Qaida group claims killing of 9 GIs in Iraq

A group led by al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a suicide truck bomb that killed nine U.S. soldiers and wounded 20 in one of the worst attacks on U.S. ground forces since the invasion in 2003.
/ Source: msnbc.com news services

A group led by al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a suicide truck bomb that killed nine U.S. soldiers and wounded 20 in one of the worst attacks on U.S. ground forces since the invasion in 2003.

"Two knights from the Islamic State in Iraq ... driving two booby-trapped trucks hit the heart of the Crusader American headquarters in the region of Diyala," a statement from the self-styled militant group said in a Web posting.

The U.S. military said only one suicide attacker was involved in Monday's strike on a military outpost at Diyala, north of Baghdad, scene of fierce fighting between American troops and Sunni Arab insurgents and al-Qaida militants.

Two witnesses said the outpost was located in an old school in the village of al-Mukhisa.

One said an initial suicide truck bomb exploded inside the yard after ramming through barricades. Another suicide truck bomb followed shortly after, he said.

"The building collapsed ... There was a huge fire," said the witness, who declined to be identified.

The second witness said the explosions were followed by a raging gunbattle.

The victims were all members of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, said a spokesman for the Fort Bragg, N.C.-based unit. It was the highest number of casualties for the division since the war began, Maj. Tom Earnhardt said.

Suicide bomber kills 25 near Ramadi
Near the city of Ramadi in western Anbar province, a suicide truck bomb killed 25 people and wounded 44, police said. They said the attack targeted police and civilians.

While frontal assaults by insurgents against heavily fortified U.S. bases in Iraq are rare, a two-month-old security plan that places troops in less protected garrisons in Baghdad and neighboring areas has exposed them to greater risk.

In an interview to an Egyptian television station broadcast in Iraq on Tuesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Iraq had become the "most prominent arena in the fight against al-Qaida."

The bombing of the U.S. outpost came as a showdown between President Bush and Congress deepened over Democrat efforts to set a timetable for the withdrawal of nearly 150,000 troops. Congress will vote this week on a funding bill that sets March 31, 2008 as the goal for pulling out most troops, but Bush repeated on Tuesday his vow to use his presidential veto.

86 U.S. forces die in April
A U.S. military statement said the attack in Diyala took place near Baqouba, capital of the province, a religiously mixed area where U.S. commanders last month sent 1,000 extra troops.

"We have seen a lot of recent attacks up in Diyala ... that have been part of the fight for the province," said U.S. military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver.

At least 86 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq this month, making April the deadliest since December, when 112 were killed.

At least 3,333 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops have been deployed in Baghdad since February under the security crackdown that is seen as a last-ditch attempt to halt Iraq's slide into all-out sectarian civil war.

Insurgents shift outside Baghdad
That has prompted insurgents to focus their attacks outside the capital in provinces where U.S. commanders say Sunni Arab insurgents and al-Qaida militants have regrouped.

On Tuesday, gunmen wearing uniforms of the Iraqi army raided a neighborhood in Baqouba, killing six people, wounding 15 and burning several homes, police said. A suicide car bomber on Monday killed 10 Iraqi policemen during a gathering of senior police officials in Baqouba, including the city's police chief.

In the previous worst ground attack against U.S. forces in Iraq, 10 U.S. Marines were killed near Fallujah in a bombing on Dec. 1, 2005.

Bush's plan to send 30,000 additional troops has reduced the number of sectarian killings in the capital, but there has been a surge in car bombings inside and outside Baghdad.

Bombs outside Iranian Embassy
And two bombs went off outside the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday for the second consecutive day. Six civilians were injured, police said. Tension has risen over allegations by the U.S. and some Sunni politicians in Iraq about alleged Iranian interference in the country.

On Tuesday, gunmen stormed a house south of Baghdad at dawn, going room to room and killing seven relatives while they were still in their beds, police and neighbors said.

Neighbors said they could not recognize the assailants, who wore masks and drove into town in three pickup trucks. The whole incident lasted just a few minutes, police said, with the gunmen methodically moving room to room and pumping bullets into the residents while they slept.

All seven victims were from the same family: a mother and father, their son and four teenage grandchildren, police said. The attack occurred in the mostly Shiite village of Jaara, less than 25 miles south of Baghdad.

British transfer base's control
British forces transferred another military base to Iraqi troops in the country's south, ahead of the planned withdrawal this summer of about half of Britain's contribution to the U.S.-led coalition here.

A brief transfer ceremony was held in Basra on Tuesday at the Shaibah logistics base, once the main center of British military operations in Iraq. Iraq's national army planned to use the facility for training.

Two other British bases — al-Saie and Shatt al-Arab — were turned over to Iraqi forces in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, in the past month.

The bulk of Britain's about 7,500 soldiers in the city will now operate from a base at Basra's main airport.

Car-bomb blastsOn Monday, two parked car bombs exploded outside the embassy. One bomb exploded near the same public parking lot, killing one civilian and wounding another; the other parked car bomb exploded close to a police patrol near the embassy, killing one civilian and wounding two officers, police said.

On its Web site, the prominent Iraqi Sunni insurgent group Islamic Ansar al-Sunnah claimed responsibility for those Monday blasts.

Also Tuesday:

  • Four bullet-riddled bodies were delivered to the morgue in Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, said morgue official Mamoun Ajeel al-Rubaie. Three had been decapitated, he said.
  • A bomb hidden in a bag exploded on a minibus in eastern Baghdad, killing four passengers and wounding eight, police said.
  • U.S. forces captured 10 suspected insurgents and seized a cache of weapons in raids across central Iraq, the military said.