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Alan Chin for The New York Times

One of the bombings in the Al-Adhamiya area of Baghdad killed at least four.

April 30, 2005
Wave of Attacks in Iraq Kill 40 and Wound 100
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
and ROBERT F. WORTH

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 29 - Insurgents determined to destabilize Iraq's new government executed a devastating series of coordinated attacks on Iraqi forces on Friday, detonating 12 car bombs across greater Baghdad and striking military targets throughout Iraq. At least 40 people were killed and more than 100 others wounded.

The attacks, a direct challenge to the new Shiite-dominated government that was formed Thursday, were aimed at Iraqi police officers and national guardsmen at their bases and traveling in convoys in northern and southern Baghdad and in Madaen, 15 miles southeast of the capital. At least 23 Iraqi policemen and troops were killed. Some reports put the total death toll at as many as 50 people.

Later in the day, other car bomb attacks struck Diyarah, 20 miles south of Baghdad, killing two American soldiers, and near Taji, just north of Baghdad, where a bomber killed one American soldier and wounded two others. One American soldier was also killed and four were wounded by a homemade bomb Thursday night near Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad.

The strikes Friday morning came after a momentous and tumultuous day for the new government. After three months of delays that American officials said gave new strength to the insurgency, the dominant Shiite alliance won approval for a new cabinet - but not before angering Sunni political leaders who said they had been shortchanged.

The Shiites also pledged a housecleaning of former Baathists from the government, a move sure to drive a deeper wedge between Shiites and Sunnis, who conduct most insurgent activity. Sunni Arabs, who dominated Iraq's Baathist government under Saddam Hussein, largely boycotted elections in January.

With Friday's attacks, at least 480 Iraqi policemen and troops have been killed by insurgents in the last two months, according to tallies by Western security contractors, Iraqi officials and local news accounts.

Followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, claimed responsibility in Internet statements for a dozen attacks on Friday. The group also released an 18-minute recording said to be of Mr. Zarqawi that offered reassurances to insurgent fighters, warned Iraqis against negotiating peace with the United States and cited Pentagon data on shortfalls in American military recruiting.

In the streets, the insurgents once again turned to an increasingly common tactic: multiple bombings intended to kill not only the victims of the initial blast but also security forces and bystanders who rush to the aid of the wounded.

The strikes began just after 8 a.m. on Friday, the weekly holy day for most Iraqis, with four car bombs in the Adhamiya neighborhood, a heavily Sunni district in northern Baghdad that is home to many former Baathists. The attacks killed 7 Iraqi national guardsmen, 2 policemen and 4 civilians, and wounded 50 others, an Interior Ministry official said. Other reports said as many as 20 people had been killed there.

The first Adhamiya bomb went off next to a popular restaurant as an Iraqi convoy drove by, the police said. The blast propelled the crumpled remains of the bomber's vehicle more than 100 feet, where the police at the scene pointed to parts of the suicide bomber's body lodged in the charred wreckage.

Several pools of blood surrounded an aqua minivan in front of the destroyed restaurant. A child's stuffed animal, blackened from the blast, and women's sandals were strewn amid the bloody debris.

"It was terrible," said Muhammad Kadham, a 27-year-old worker who rushed to the scene. "Human body parts were everywhere. Ambulances have been busy carrying away the injured. It was insane." A few hours later, a car bomb aimed at a passing convoy of Iraqi National Guard troops detonated in the Ghadeer district in southern Baghdad, and 15 minutes later a second bomb struck in the same spot, killing one civilian and wounding four troops and four civilians, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.

In Madaen, a town of Sunnis and Shiites that has seen intense sectarian violence and insurgent activity, three car bombers struck in a coordinated attack that killed 3 Iraqi police commandos, 4 Iraqi troops and 2 civilians while wounding 38 others, the ministry official said.

In Baquba, a prominent cleric, Abdul-Razzaq Hamid Rashid, blew himself up with a hand grenade when Iraqi security forces tried to arrest him on Friday, a police official said.

Two homemade bombs were detonated Friday morning a few miles north of Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, killing one Iraqi border guard and wounding another.

The violence, which the American military said was clearly aimed at discrediting the new government, showed that despite a lull in attacks after the Jan. 30 elections, the insurgents still have the resources and organizational structure to carry out disciplined and demoralizing strikes.

"Terrorists have still proven they can execute or surge their capability to conduct limited attacks," the American military said in a statement.

The American commander of the troops that oversee Baghdad, Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr. of the Third Infantry Division, described the Baghdad attacks in an interview on CNN as "another desperate attempt to try to derail the emerging democratic government."

"Today was just another spike that comes periodically," General Webster said, adding that his "message back to Zarqawi is that he's not going to win."

Friday's toll could have been worse. Five car bombs intended for Iraqi police stations and other targets in Salman Pak and eastern Baghdad were intercepted by the Iraqi police and troops, said Lt. Col. Clifford Kent, a military spokesman in Baghdad. Seven Iraqis suspected of involvement in Friday's attacks were captured, and another was wounded, the military said.

American officials disclosed new details of a previously discovered mass grave near Samawa in southern Iraq this week, saying they had exhumed at least 113 bodies, mostly Kurdish children and women, according to a pool report provided by American officials. Most victims had been shot with Kalashnikov rifles.

The new details followed the disclosure by Iraqi officials two weeks ago that the Samawa site held the remains of about 2,000 Kurdish members of the clan of Massoud Barzani who were killed by the government of Saddam Hussein.

It was impossible on Friday to verify the authenticity of the purported Zarqawi recording, but terrorism analysts said it appeared authentic. The Jordanian-born terrorist, who has a $25 million bounty on his head, delivered a wide-ranging speech warning resistance fighters against efforts to "open a dialogue" with American-led forces.

American military officials confirmed this week that they narrowly missed capturing Mr. Zarqawi in February near Ramadi.

A number of people claiming to speak for insurgent groups have approached American officials in Baghdad to open a dialogue, but they have been referred to the Iraqi authorities. It is not clear how the new Iraqi government will handle negotiations with insurgent fighters or requests for amnesty.

"They have tried a wicked trick to pull the carpet from under the feet of the mujahedeen," the speaker on the recording says of the authorities. "They made an offer to some defeatists who pretend they are mujahedeen to establish the nucleus of the Iraqi Army in Sunni areas."

The speaker also discusses American recruiting shortfalls and cites an article published in The Washington Post on March 19. Mr. Zarqawi's group opened a heightened media campaign in March and often releases several statements in a single day.

Along with familiar exhortations to armed struggle, the statement included an unusual reference to injustices committed against Sunni Arabs by Shiite army and police officers. Although Mr. Zarqawi and other insurgents initially aimed their attacks and oratory at Americans, they are increasingly striking Shiites, who predominate in the new government and Iraq's fledgling security forces.

Zaineb Obeid and Alan Chin contributed reporting for this article.

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