Iraq's prime minister toured the ancient northern city of Tal Afar on Monday — ignoring an alleged al-Qaida threat to strike with chemical weapons — to congratulate Iraqi forces for rousting militants from their stronghold near Syria, Iraqi television reported.
In Baghdad, a huge car bomb exploded outside a popular restaurant in the upscale Mansour neighborhood Monday night, witnesses said. Hospital officials reported at least one person was killed and 17 were wounded.
Dr. Muhanad Jawad of Yarmouk Hospital said most of the victims were women.
Jawad said three people were treated for minor wounds, but that 14 others remained hospitalized. It was not immediately clear how serious their injuries were.
Al-Iraqiya television, which showed no pictures, said Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was in the Tal Afar area despite an insurgent threat to unleash chemical and biological weapons against the force of 5,000 Iraqi soldiers and commandos, backed by 3,500 troops from the U.S. 3rd Armored Cavalry regiment, who stormed into the city Saturday.
The offensive "was a great shock to al-Qaida. They were thrown off balance and issued this threat. We will be on the lookout," Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said at a news conference.
Network of underground tunnels discovered
Militant positions were found mainly deserted Sunday, and the invading force discovered a network of tunnels below the city through which the insurgents were believed to have fled to the surrounding countryside.
The offensive, however, exacted a heavy toll on the insurgents, leaving almost 200 suspected militants dead and more than 315 captured, Iraqi military officials said.
Forty insurgents were killed in fierce clashes between militants and Iraqi troops who raided suspected hideouts late Monday afternoon. The raids were launched in response to a roadside bombing that targeted an Iraqi patrol earlier in the day, killing one soldier and wounding three, said Capt. Mohammed Ahmed, an Iraqi army spokesman in Tal Afar. Ahmed said 27 militants were arrested.
Before the afternoon clash, Brig. Gen. Abdul Aziz Mohammed-Jassim had said 157 suspected insurgents were killed in clashes with Iraqi forces over the course of the operation. He said 292 militants were arrested. In all, at least six Iraqi soldiers and six civilians died in the fighting, he said.
No American soldiers were reported killed in the fighting.
Prime minister defies terrorist threat
Al-Iraqiya reported that al-Jaafari was in Tal Afar in defiance of "a terrorist threat to attack the city with chemical and biological weapons."
There was no known public threat from the insurgents to use unconventional weapons in the area, but they have issued two Web postings since Friday, vowing to use chemical weapons against U.S. and Iraqi government interests in Baghdad. The threats mentioned the Green Zone that houses the U.S. Embassy, Iraq's parliament and government offices.
Also, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, posted audio Sunday on the Internet accusing U.S. and Iraqi forces of using poison gas in the Tal Afar offensive. The authenticity of the tape could not be independently verified, but the voice was similar to other postings attributed to the Jordanian-born militant.
"The Crusaders mobilized their big armies and used the most destructive and lethal weapons and the most deadly and hurtful poison gas together with their stooges," he said. "But God made them drink at the hands of the mujahedeen the different kinds of death and made them face horrible things that they will never forget."
U.S. officials consistently have denied using poison gas in warfare.
Insurgent group offering money for killings
In a new Web posting Monday, an insurgent group offered a bounty of nearly $200,000 for the deaths of al-Jaafari, Jabr and Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi in retaliation for the Tal Afar offensive.
The Islamic Army in Iraq, which previously claimed responsibility for kidnappings and killings of foreigners, called on its "holy fighters to strike the infidels with an iron fist." It offered $100,000 for killing al-Jaafari, $50,000 for Jabr and $30,000 for al-Dulaimi.
"What the American forces and Iraq's traitors, the tails of the infidels, did in Tal Afar is a genocide to the Sunni people in this great city," the statement said.
In the days leading up the Tal Afar offensive, U.S. forces carried out airstrikes and joined the Iraqi army in encircling the city about 60 miles from Syria.
The insurgent fighters, thus, had plenty of warning the city would be attacked and fled the onslaught in a classic guerrilla retreat. Tal Afar has now been swept clear of extremists for the second time in a year.
"The terrorists had seen it coming (and prepared) tunnel complexes to be used as escape routes," said Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, deputy chief of staff for coalition forces.
Signaling their frustration in having to repeat the assault on the city, Iraqi and U.S. military leaders vowed to redouble efforts to crush insurgents operating along the Syrian frontier and in the Euphrates River valley.
Closing the Syrian border gateway
As Baghdad kept a border crossing into Syria, al-Dulaimi issued a warning: "The Syrians have to stop sending destruction to Iraq. We know the terrorists have no other gateway into Iraq but Syria."
A Syrian Foreign Ministry official reacted angrily Monday, rejecting the Iraqi claim as "absolutely untrue." The official SANA news agency in Damascus did not name the official it quoted as saying, "Iraqi officials are fully aware that Syria is exerting all-out efforts to control the borders."
The United States and Iraq routinely charge that Syria's government does little to stop the flow of Arab fighters across the border.
Al-Dulaimi said the offensive in Tal Afar would be a model as his forces soon thrust farther west toward the Syrian border and south into the Euphrates valley.
"We are warning those who have given shelter to terrorists that they must stop, kick them out or else we will cut off their hands, heads and tongues as we did in Tal Afar," al-Dulaimi added, apparently using figurative language.
Most of Tal Afar's residents — 90 percent of them Turkmen — fled before the fighting, and tens of thousands are living in tent cities to the north and east. Food, water and medical supplies are scarce.
"This camp is suffering from the lack of medicine. I need an ambulance to evacuate the critical cases," said Dr. Abdullah Jassem, the only physician at a camp near the village of al-Alouliyah. The Iraqi and Turkish Red Crescent societies have rushed aid to the refugees.