IRAQ Attacks leave dozens dead

Samarra had been viewed as a model of how to quell insurgents.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Militants unleashed a series of car bomb attacks and ambushes in the city of Samarra and across central Iraq on Saturday, killing about 30 people, wounding nearly two dozen Americans and undercutting U.S. claims that rebel violence in the region had been brought under control.
In Samarra, attacks targeted police stations and a U.S.-Iraqi military convoy and occurred within minutes of one another, suggesting they may have been part of a coordinated assault. Most of the 29 dead and wounded were Iraqi police officers. No U.S. casualties were reported.
The dead included the local Iraqi National Guard commander, Abdel Razeq Shaker al-Garmali, hospital officials told The Associated Press. An additional 40 people, including 17 police, were injured, the military said.
Americans wounded
Elsewhere, 16 American soldiers were wounded Saturday when a suicide bomber using an Iraqi police car rammed their convoy in Ramadi, a major city in the volatile Sunni Triangle, AP reported.
Three other Americans were wounded when a car bomb exploded near the entrance to Baghdad International Airport. One Iraqi was killed and another injured, the U.S. military said. Three humvees were heavily damaged, witnesses said.
Two Marines were injured by a car bomb near a Fallujah checkpoint, and a U.S. soldier was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded south of Fallujah.
Long one of Iraq's most volatile cities, Samarra more recently had been hailed as a success story in the struggle to neutralize insurgents' control over key Sunni Triangle cities.
Like Fallujah, Samarra had been overrun by Sunni Muslim insurgents and foreign fighters who had kept both Iraqi security forces and U.S. troops at bay and had brought reconstruction work to a standstill.
With Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's approval, U.S. troops stormed the city Oct. 1, killed dozens of guerrillas and retook the city. Iraqi security forces resumed their presence there, and Samarra was viewed as a model for pacifying other insurgent strongholds.
With Samarra under control, U.S. and Iraqi leaders turned their attention toward Fallujah, which has evolved into a symbol of resistance to the U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Insurgents have controlled Fallujah since April, when mounting civilian deaths prompted U.S. military commanders to stop a spring offensive to destroy the insurgency there.
Casualties
At least 18 Iraqi police died in the attacks in Samarra, and 14 others were injured, said U.S. Army Master Sgt. Robert Cowens. The rest of the casualties were civilians.
One of the Samarra police stations targeted was struck by mortars that killed three Iraqi police and wounded nine more, Cowens said. Insurgents also stormed a police station in Samarra's Zera District; the number of dead and wounded from that attack was not known.
Two car bombs exploded near the office of Samarra Mayor Tariq Uwaid and near a convoy of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. Four Iraqi soldiers were injured in the attack on the convoy, Cowens said.
The Arab television network Al-Jazeera reported that three police stations in all were targeted, one of which was rammed by a suicide car bomber who killed 10 Iraqi police. That report could not be confirmed.
Uwaid imposed a curfew on the city, and by Saturday afternoon U.S. and Iraqi security forces had restored order, Cowens said.
Assault on Fallujah
The violence came as U.S. and Iraqi security forces prepared a major assault on insurgents in Fallujah in an operation regarded as pivotal to establishing stability in Iraq ahead of national elections in January.
U.S. fighter jets intensified air assaults on insurgent positions in the Sunni city early Saturday, striking three barricaded guerrilla posts, the U.S. military said. Nine airstrikes in a 31-hour span from Thursday to early Saturday also destroyed several weapons caches and anti-aircraft fortifications, the military said.
An estimated 10,000 U.S. troops have amassed on the outskirts of Fallujah, waiting for word from U.S. military commanders that Allawi has given the go-ahead for the offensive.
U.S. and Iraqi leaders believe the eradication of the insurgency in the city is vital to stabilizing the volatile Sunni Muslim region west of Baghdad and paving the way for the region to take part in elections in late January. Those elections will produce a national assembly that will draft Iraq's new constitution.
However, many observers fear the strategy could backfire, especially if the offensive claims the lives of scores of civilians. Most civilians have fled the city, but as many as 50,000 remain.
Last week, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan cautioned that a showdown between U.S.-led forces and insurgents could jeopardize the elections.
Allawi's government has been negotiating with tribal and religious leaders in Fallujah in an effort to bring about a peaceful end to the insurgency there. But those talks have stalled, and last week Allawi said the "window is closing" for a peaceful resolution that would stave off the assault.