Sunni Neighborhood Targeted in Aftermath of Bombing
BAGHDAD, Iraq _ Mortars rained down on a Sunni Baghdad neighborhood Sunday in apparent retaliation for the deadliest single bombing of the war, and the U.S. military confirmed that ground fire brought down four helicopters that have crashed since Jan. 20.
A day after an estimated 1-ton truck bomb killed at least 138 people in the crowded Shiite market of Sadriyah in central Baghdad, tensions rose across the city and frustration built over delays in implementing the government’s promised new security plan.
More than 70 people were reported killed, including 42 whose corpses were dumped around the city and 15 killed in the mortar barrage against Adhamiyah, a Sunni neighborhood that is typically targeted in the aftermath of bombings against Shiite neighborhoods.
Stirring fresh tensions with neighboring Syria, Iraq’s government accused Damascus of responsibility for half the terrorist attacks in Baghdad and called on Syria to hand over wanted former Baathists and halt the flow of foreign fighters across its borders.
“I confirm that 50 percent of murders and bombings are by Arab extremists coming from Syria,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. “They come from Syria; we have evidence to prove it.”
The worst single bombing yet and the unprecedented cluster of helicopter attacks highlighted the challenges confronting the U.S. military and the Iraqi government as they prepare to implement the plan on which President Bush’s revised strategy for Iraq rides.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell cautioned that the plan is unlikely to produce immediate results. “It is important to acknowledge that it will not turn the security situation overnight,” he said.
He said for the first time that the four helicopters that crashed between Jan. 20 and Feb. 2, killing 21 Americans, all were brought down by hostile fire. Three were military helicopters and one was contracted to Blackwater, a civilian security contractor.
Investigators still have not determined exactly how the four were brought down or whether the insurgents may have acquired new tactics, but “it does appear they were all the result of some kind of (anti-aircraft) ground fire that did bring those helicopters down,” he said.
“There’s been an ongoing effort since we’ve been here to target our helicopters,” Caldwell said. “Based on what we have seen, we’re already making adjustments in our tactics and techniques and procedures as to how we employ our helicopters.”
A video posted on an Islamic Web site claimed to show Friday’s downing of an Apache helicopter over farmland north of Baghdad. As the helicopter passes, a heavy burst of gunfire is heard followed by the sound of what appears to be a powerful missile. Then the Apache spirals to the ground in a ball of fire. Three insurgents are shown preparing the missile in a field, but the area covering their hands has been digitally distorted making it impossible to determine exactly what they are doing.
In the background, the voice of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the head of the al-Qaida-linked Mujahadeen Shura Council, is heard exhorting his followers: “Burn them all, kill all the Jews, destroy their equipment and vehicles, shoot down their helicopters and planes.”
The video, attributed to the Ministry of Information of the Islamic State of Iraq, followed a statement Friday that claimed responsibility for the attack and boasted that the organization had acquired “new methods for confronting (America’s) air force.”
If insurgents did develop effective methods for downing helicopters, it could severely curtail the military’s mobility as 21,500 more combat troops are preparing to deploy to Iraq.
Most of those _ about 17,500 _ are to go to Baghdad to assist Iraqi troops in implementing the government’s new security plan, which is due to kick off soon.
But on the streets of the jittery capital, faith is fading in the ability of government forces or the U.S. military to halt the sectarian violence.
“How many security plans have we had? Four? Five? And none of them worked,” said Hussein Jawad, a grocery store owner in a Shiite neighborhood who says he has lost all confidence in the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The tensions between Sunnis and Shiites erupted in parliament, with Shiite lawmakers staging a noisy walkout at an attempt by the Sunni speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, to read a letter from a tribe about a recent battle in Najaf in which more than 260 people died.
“The speaker is not adhering to the system. He’s behaving like we’re in a tea shop,” shouted Shiite legislator Sami al-Askari as Mashhadani yelled at the lawmakers to be quiet, banging his gavel over and over in a vain attempt to make them sit down.
Also Sunday, the U.S. military announced the death of a soldier from wounds received during an attack in Diyala province.
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