Iraq Blast Kills 18; U.S. Toll Hits 500

A suicide car bomber set off a massive explosion at the main gate to the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition this morning as a crowd of visitors and workers waited to enter the compound, killing at least 16 Iraqi civilians and two U.S. Department of Defense employees. The blast came a day after the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq reached 500.

Dozens of Iraqis were injured, and at least six Americans were hurt, including four U.S. civilian contractors and two American soldiers, a U.S. military spokesman said.

The bomb flung many of the Iraqis standing in line into the furls of razor-sharp concertina wire that surrounds the checkpoint area. Others were slashed by shrapnel.

At least 20 cars were destroyed. More than an hour later, smoke was still rising from the scene and the acrid smell of the bomb hung in the foggy air.

“It was a great explosion; we were thrown away into the barbed wire,” said Abdul Kareem, 40, a blacksmith, whose clothes were torn and whose hand was wrapped in bandages.

Kareem and other witnesses said the bomber was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser and waiting with other cars to enter the compound when it exploded. A senior military official confirmed the method of attack.

“The way the cars were spaced out, it does appear the vehicle was in line to get into the compound, but it may also have been parked there; there are any number of scenarios at this point,” the official said. “It’s very chaotic down there at the scene; there’s all kinds of blood trails leading out of cars” from people walking away from the scene.

Today’s blast followed a bombing Saturday in the town of Taji, north of Baghdad, that killed three U.S. soldiers and injured two others. The blast brought the death toll of U.S. soldiers in Iraq to 500.

Saturday’s attack, which also killed two Iraqi civil defense corpsmen working alongside U.S. troops, took place on a country road lined with date palms and fields of wheat and barley. It came one day after the U.S. commander here, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, spoke confidently of a steep decline in attacks in recent weeks and called on the insurgents to capitulate.

The bombings occurred as U.S. officials in Washington were scrambling to develop a plan to mollify leaders of Iraq’s Shiite majority seeking direct elections as part of a planned return of power to Iraqis on June 30.

White House officials are keen to avoid the instability likely to result from a broad Shiite rejection of the U.S.-crafted political solution, which does not envision direct elections until next year.

As the weekend attacks demonstrated, the insurgency appears far from spent.

The tally of 500 dead since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began March 20 is based on Pentagon numbers and a daily compilation of casualties by Associated Press. Of those, 346 have died as a result of hostile action and 154 from nonhostile causes, such as accidents and illness.

Nearly three-fourths of the deaths have occurred since President Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq on May 1. In contrast, the war in Afghanistan has cost the lives of 100 U.S. troops, the Pentagon says.

With 55 deaths, California is home to the most fallen soldiers in Iraq, followed by Texas (40), Pennsylvania (28) and New York (21), according to an Associated Press breakdown. The figures do not include the deaths of the three soldiers killed Saturday or another who died Friday as the result of a nonhostile gunshot wound south of Baghdad.

In addition to the American deaths, 55 British troops have been killed, along with 36 soldiers from other coalition nations, including Italy, Spain, Thailand, Poland, Bulgaria and Denmark. There is no accurate count of civilians killed since the invasion.

Besides the deaths, the Pentagon officially lists almost 3,000 U.S. troops as having been wounded in Iraq. However, other reports have indicated that thousands more soldiers have been airlifted out of Iraq for injuries -- both from hostile fire and other causes -- as well as illnesses and mental problems.

Although several U.S. soldiers were among the injured in today’s blast, many of the victims were Iraqi employees working for the U.S.-organized reconstruction effort; others were there applying for work.

Samra Ureibi was standing over her sons in the emergency room of Yarmouk Hospital. Shrapnel had punctured the lung of one son, Riyadh Jamaal Hameed. The other, Munir Bashir Jamaal Hameed, had shrapnel cuts on a hand. The brothers each earn 5,000 Iraqi dinars a day, or $5, working for a construction company.

“This is what they get for trying to make ends meet. These guys are targeting Iraqis,” she said. “If I knew this was going to happen, I’d have never let them go in the first place. My sons are injured, I’m living in constant fear, we don’t have any retirement or welfare. All we have is the money they make.”

Ala Jabaar, a 40-year-old construction worker, said he and others were meeting nearby to look for work.

“I heard a huge explosion and all I saw was a fireball,” Jabaar recalled from his blood-smeared emergency room bed. “There were burning cars, lots of injured in the street, and glass was shattered all over.”

Jassim Mohammed, 32, a taxi driver who was in his car when the blast occurred, said that immediately after the explosion U.S. soldiers opened fire.

“After the explosion, the Americans were shooting at random in all directions,” said Mohammed, whose red Passat was thrown into the air, its windows smashed and its roof buckled. “I just wanted to run away.”

Gen. Ahmed Kadhim Ibrahim, chief of the Iraqi police, rushed to the scene with other officers. “All the people who died are Iraqi heroes,” he said.

Stunned by the latest explosion, Baghdad residents renewed calls for improved security in their city and country, which has been wracked by a series of bombings since the summer. Many shouted anti-U.S. slogans. Some blamed the blast alternately on various other Arab countries.

“How long are these things going to continue?” asked Amir Abdul-Hassan, 31. “What’s the solution?”

“There’s no security,” said Hamid Ismail, 30, an emergency room resident who helped treat the injured. “There is always a fear that walking down the street one can be subjected to this kind of fate. We have to have stronger security apparatus.”

As for the bombing Saturday, the ground convoy that was targeted was part of a patrol sweeping the agricultural zone for roadside bombs, low-tech but lethal devices that have caused scores of U.S. casualties and have proved a particularly effective weapon for the insurgents. So-called improvised explosive devices have been fashioned from packed gunpowder, grenades and artillery shells, among other explosives, and concealed in everything from soft drink cans to dead sheep.

Saturday’s bomb was an especially powerful device, officials said, blowing a hole about 10 feet by 5 feet in the asphalt road. The bomb, which went off at 7:45 a.m., appeared to have been placed in a metal pipe that drew water from a tributary of the Tigris River to an adjoining irrigation canal.

The blast destroyed a Bradley fighting vehicle. Bradleys have proved vulnerable to both rocket-propelled grenades with armor-piercing tips and roadside bombs that strike the undersides.

“It’s upsetting.... One soldier is too many to die,” said Capt. Bryan Miller, of Staten Island, N.Y. “But I still think we’re doing some good things here in Iraq.”

Troops cordoned off the area and stopped a white truck that was driving away, the Army said. Soldiers discovered bomb-making material in the truck. Three suspects were detained for questioning.

A concealed wire appeared to have been used to detonate the blast. Footage of the aftermath on Arabic-language television showed gleeful men displaying chunks of the Bradley wreckage -- a scene that has become commonplace at ambush sites in Iraq’s Sunni heartland.

After the camera crews left, several farmers who milled about the crater said the attack would do them no good. Some wondered who would repair their irrigation pipe.

“When this happens, the Americans come to all of our houses and arrest many men,” said Firaz Abid, 23, as he stood alongside the rim of the bomb crater, where pieces of the Bradley were scattered alongside an empty U.S. cartridge magazine and blood-streaked bandages. “I wish this fighting would stop. It doesn’t help us.”

Troops stationed near the site of the attack said the U.S. must maintain a strong presence, despite the rising toll.

“Five hundred dead is too many,” said Spc. Melanie Torres of Apple Valley, Calif., as she stood behind a .50-caliber machine gun atop an armed personnel carrier along the main highway north of Baghdad. “But if we just get up and leave, it’s like they died for nothing.”

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Times staff writers Alissa Rubin and Nicholas Riccardi in Baghdad contributed to this report.