Terrorists kill dozens in Iraq attacks

BAGHDAD — Facing a major assault in Fallujah, terrorists struck back yesterday with suicide car bombs, mortars and rockets across a wide swath of central Iraq, killing more than 30 people and wounding more than 60, including nearly two dozen Americans.

The attacks appeared aimed at relieving pressure on Fallujah, where about 10,000 American troops are massing for a major assault. U.S. jets pounded Fallujah early yesterday in the heaviest air strikes in six months — including five 500-pound bombs dropped on terrorist targets.

The deadliest attacks by the terrorists yesterday occurred in Samarra, a city 60 miles north of Baghdad that U.S. and Iraqi commanders have touted as a model for pacifying restive Sunni Muslim areas of the country.

Militants in Samarra stormed a police station, triggered at least two suicide car bombs and fired mortars at government installations. One of the car bombs, targeting the mayor’s office, used a stolen Iraqi police vehicle, the U.S. military said.

Twenty-nine persons, 17 police and 12 Iraqi civilians, were killed throughout the city, the U.S. military said. Arabic language television stations said more than 30 died as gangs of militants roamed the city, clashing with American and Iraqi forces.

The dead included the local Iraqi national guard commander, Abdel Razeq Shaker al-Garmali, hospital officials said. Another 40 persons, including 17 policemen, were injured, the military said.

U.S. military vehicles roamed through the besieged city using loudspeakers to announce an indefinite curfew starting at 2 p.m. yesterday. American warplanes and helicopters roamed the skies.

Elsewhere, 16 American soldiers were wounded yesterday when a suicide bomber using an Iraqi police car rammed their convoy in Ramadi, a major city in the volatile Sunni Triangle, U.S. officials said. They gave no further details, citing security.

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.

Samarra, an ancient city of gold-domed mosques that once served as the capital of a Muslim empire extending from Spain to India, was recaptured from Sunni Muslim rebels in September and was touted as a model for restoring government control to other areas formerly under guerrilla domination.

U.S. and Iraqi forces hope to use the same techniques if they drive Sunni militants from Fallujah. American commanders have assembled a force of Marines, soldiers and U.S.-trained Iraqi fighters around Fallujah, a major rebel base 40 miles west of Baghdad.

They are awaiting orders from Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to launch an all-out assault.

However, the violence in Samarra underscored the difficulty of maintaining civilian authority in Sunni areas even after the worst of the fighting ebbs.

“I cannot claim that entering Fallujah will end the terrorist attacks in Iraq,” Iraq’s national security adviser, Qassem Dawoud, told Al Arabiya television.

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