Posted: Today at 4:28 p.m.
BAGHDAD — A
suicide bomber detonated his explosives as American soldiers were
handing out toys to children northeast of Baghdad on Sunday, killing at
least three children and three of the troopers, U.S. and Iraqi
authorities said.
Seven children were wounded in the attack in Baqouba, where U.S. soldiers wrested control from al-Qaida in Iraq last summer.
The attack, along with a series of other blasts in the capital and
to the north, underlined the uncertainty of security in Iraq even as
the American military said overall violence is down 55 percent since a
troop buildup began this year.
Police said the attack occurred as U.S. soldiers were handing out
toys, sports equipment and other treats in a playground near Baqouba,
35 miles northeast of Baghdad.
Few details were available, but the U.S. military said it was a
"suicide vest attack" and that three American soldiers were killed.
Rasoul Issam, 16, said he and his friends were playing soccer when
the U.S. soldiers called to them from their vehicles to come get gifts.
"We ran toward them and I caught a ball when suddenly an explosion
took place about 20 meters (yards) from us," Issam said from his
hospital bed in Baqouba.
Mohammed Sabah, 11, was hit by shrapnel in his hand and chest.
"The soldiers gave me pens and I thanked them. After this the
explosion took place and I was hit by shrapnel," he said. "The second
thing I remember is being in the hospital."
The deaths raised to at least 3,870 members of the U.S. military who
have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an
Associated Press count.
The military cast blame on al-Qaida in Iraq.
"This is another example of how AQI cares nothing about the Iraqi
people. They will kill children to meet their goals," said Maj. Peggy
Kageleiry, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces in northern Iraq.
Iraqi children frequently converge on American troops who usually
carry soccer balls and stuffed animals crammed in their armored
vehicles as they seek to garner good will.
In July 2005, a suicide car bomber sped up to American soldiers
distributing candy to children July 2005 and detonated his explosives,
killing up to 27 people, including a dozen children and a U.S. soldier.
That occurred about nine months after 35 Iraqi children were killed
in a string of bombs that exploded as American troops were handing out
candy at a government-sponsored celebration to inaugurate a sewage
plant in west Baghdad.
Rocket and mortar barrages also hit several U.S. bases in Baghdad overnight.
Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman, said the attacks caused some casualties but no deaths.
"The fight we're up against has not gone away. Today's mortar and
rocket attacks demonstrate that the enemy has the capacity to wage
violence," Smith said. "We're working our way through those attacks and
the level of damage."
In all, at least 29 people were killed Sunday, including the three soldiers.
The deadliest attack was a parked car bomb targeting a convoy
carrying Salman al-Mukhtar, an adviser to the Iraqi finance minister.
Al-Mukhtar escaped injury, but the blast in the predominantly Shiite
district of Karradah in central Baghdad killed at least 10 people and
wounded 21, including two of the official's bodyguards, according to
police and hospital officials.
The chief editor of an independent daily newspaper, al-Bayan
al-Jadid, Sattar Jabbar, was in the car with the minister's adviser
when the explosion occurred but also was not hurt, Jabbar's brother,
Abdul-Wahhab, said.
Smith, the U.S. military spokesman, said overall attacks in Iraq
have fallen 55 percent since nearly 30,000 additional American troops
arrived in Iraq by June, and some areas are experiencing their lowest
levels of violence since the summer of 2005.
Iraqi civilian casualties were down 60 percent across the country
since June, and the figure for Baghdad was even better - 75 percent,
Smith said.
But he acknowledged the "violence is still too high" and warned Iraq
still faces serious threats from Shiite militants as well as al-Qaida
in Iraq.
He also said Iranian interference continued to be a problem for Iraq's stability.
"Make no doubt ... Iran has been the principle supplier of weapons,
arms, training and funding of many militia groups," Smith told
reporters. "That has not changed."
"A large number of Iranian weapons still exist here in Iraq. We do
believe there are still individuals who are coordinating activities ...
The degree to which Iran has ceased completely its training, equipping,
financing and resourcing has yet to be witnessed or determined on the
battlefield, but the trends are going in the right direction," Smith
said.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have said in recent weeks that Iran appears
to be honoring a commitment to stem the flow of deadly weapons to
support Shiite militia fighters in Iraq, contributing to the sharp
decline in violence.
But American officials tempered that optimism on Sunday, saying it was too early to determine Iran's role in the downturn.
"It's unclear to us what role the Iranians might have had in these
developments, if any," said Philip T. Reeker, spokesman for the U.S.
Embassy in Baghdad.
"It's difficult to read trends in reductions," he said. "To draw
direct lines from that data - to say that there are fewer attacks and
conclude that there's a particular reason for it. Vis-a-vis Iran's
action - that is something we're not yet prepared to do," Reeker said
at a news conference in Baghdad's U.S.-guarded Green Zone.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Sunday urged the Iraqi government not to follow up on the U.S. accusations.
"Since the beginning, the United States has raised baseless
accusations against Iran," Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a Foreign Ministry
spokesman, told reporters.
On Saturday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iran was
now limiting its support to fighters in Iraq, and urged Tehran and the
U.S. to take advantage and hold a new round of talks on improving the
situation in the wartorn country.
Since May, Iran, the U.S. and Iraq have held three rounds of talks in Baghdad.
Reeker said Sunday that he expected another round of talks soon, but no date had been set.
"That channel remains open," he told reporters.
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Associated Press writers Lauren Frayer and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.
Dressed for battle....
..The Victory!!!!
