Bombs Kill 10 in Baghdad; Rumsfeld Visits

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Two car bombs shook the capital in quick succession Sunday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 17, including an American soldier, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

The attack came as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld met with American troops in a surprise trip to Iraq’s western desert, telling them it was unlikely the United States would pull out any troops before next year’s elections. He said the violence was expected to increase in the run-up to the elections.

A suicide attacker detonated a minibus packed with explosives near an eastern Baghdad police academy, police Cap. Ali Ayez said at the scene. At least four mangled bodies lay on the street amid scattered shoes, papers and a handbag. Police collected body parts on stretchers.

The dead included three police academy students and a female officer, Ayez said.

U.S. forces assisted the wounded, including a police recruit who received stitches in his abdomen. Police recruiting centers have been frequently targeted in an attempt to undercut support for Iraq’s security services.

The nearby Kindi Hospital received 10 bodies and treated five wounded from the blast, said Dr. Ali Ghazi. Police said 15 people were injured in all.

Another car bomb exploded near a small market in the area of the Culture Ministry, police Lt. Ahmed Hussein said at the scene. The blast wounded at least one bystander and left a gaping crater in the road. The bomb may have been aimed at a passing American convoy, Hussein said.

Capt. Mitchell Zornes, of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, confirmed that a convoy was targeted in one of the blasts but wasn’t immediately sure which one. One American soldier was wounded and evacuated to a medical facility, he said.

Improvised bombs – some left by the side of the road, others rigged in vehicles – have become insurgents’ weapon of choice in Iraq. U.S. officials are struggling to build up Iraq’s own security resources to cope with the threat.

“Our hope is that as we build up Iraqi forces we will be able to relieve the stress on our forces and see a reduction in coalition forces over some period of time, probably post-Iraqi election.” Rumsfeld told Marines at Al Asad air field in Iraq’s western desert Sunday morning. “But again, it will depend entirely on the security situation here in this country.”

It was Rumsfeld’s first visit here since the United States handed over authority to an interim Iraqi government June 28. It was not announced in advance.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s government hopes to suppress insurgents and take control of rebel enclaves before the legislative elections planned for January. U.S. and Iraqi officials have been negotiating for weeks with tribal and religious leaders in key rebel strongholds but have said they are prepared to use force if talks fail, as they did in Samarra last month.

Shiite militiamen loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr agreed Saturday to begin handing in weapons, a significant step toward restoring order in Baghdad’s sprawling Sadr City slum, a center of Shiite militant resistance.

Ali Smeisem, a senior aide to al-Sadr, said the Mahdi Army militia would begin turning in its medium and heavy weapons at three Baghdad police stations Monday in an operation expected to last five days.

As a confidence-building measure, the government will suspend raids on al-Sadr’s followers in the capital’s northeastern Sadr City district, site of weeks of clashes with U.S. and Iraqi forces, Smeisem said.

The minister in charge of national security, Qassem Dawoud, said the government was pleased with the agreement, “which aims at sparing Iraqi blood, supporting sovereign law and the peace process in Iraq.”

Dawoud told Al-Arabiya television Saturday that once officials verify the weapons handover is complete, they will begin paying compensation to people who lost property during the fighting and financing reconstruction projects. Iraqi police and soldiers will be in charge of law and order in the Shiite district, he added.

Al-Sadr’s movement is still pressing for guarantees the government will stop pursuing members and release the cleric’s detained followers but is willing to wait for a deal on those points, Smeisem said.

So far, al-Sadr has not pledged to disband his militia, a key U.S. and Iraqi government demand. But American and Iraqi authorities are eager to end the clashes in the Shiite stronghold so they can concentrate on suppressing the more widespread Sunni insurgency.

On that front, government and tribal negotiators have reported progress in talks aimed at restoring state control over Fallujah, an insurgent bastion 40 miles west of Baghdad. The city, believed to be a stronghold of Iraq’s most feared terrorist group, Tawhid and Jihad, has been subjected to weeks of U.S. airstrikes.

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Associated Press reporter Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report.