105 Killed in Attacks Across Iraq

A wave of attacks that killed at least 105 people in five Iraqi cities Thursday indicated a new level of coordination by insurgents, days before the United States is scheduled to hand over control to an interim government.

The death toll included three U.S. soldiers, U.S. and Iraqi authorities said. The injured numbered 321, most of them wounded in a series of explosions in the northern city of Mosul.

Within a chaotic six-hour period, insurgents unleashed a combination of tactics, including ambushes, armed assaults, car bombs and an explosives-laden suitcase. As the police chief in Baqubah mobilized his forces to repel the attacks, insurgents launched an assault on his home, destroying it.

The attacks were the most complex strikes in Iraq since October, when insurgents in Baghdad dispatched six suicide car bombers, hitting three police stations and the headquarters of the International Red Cross. More than 30 people were killed.

The latest attacks confirmed fears that insurgents would launch a final violent push to disrupt the return of sovereignty Wednesday.

Insurgents apparently are seeking to demonstrate that the interim government is weak and unable to consolidate power, and they have increasingly targeted Iraqi police and others who protect or work for the U.S.-led occupation.

In the days leading up to the hand-over, U.S. military officials expect insurgents to launch a major offensive in Baghdad.

Bracing for more violence, Iraqi security forces prepared to close some borders. In the capital, Iraqi employees of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority have been told to stay home next week.

“There may be more car bombings in the next few days,” said Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. “The terrorists are determined to disrupt the transfer of sovereignty. The leaders of Iraq, and the people of Iraq, are equally determined to accept sovereignty.”

One Iraqi official said intelligence reports indicated that insurgents had prepared as many as 60 car bombs. U.S. forces recently intercepted three bomb-laden vehicles in Baghdad, a military official said.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi moved quickly to soothe an increasingly jittery population. “The situation is calmer now and everything is under control,” he said.

In Washington, national security advisor Condoleezza Rice suggested the wave of blasts was intended to weaken the resolve of nations seeking to help in reconstruction efforts here.

“This is, I think, meant to be a challenge to the new Iraqi government,” she said. “And we’ve said all along that we fully expected that there was likely to be an uptick in violence as they try to derail this transition.”

In a statement published on a radical Islamic website, supporters of Abu Musab Zarqawi, a fugitive leader of an Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks, which took place in Mosul, Baqubah, Fallouja, Ramadi and Baghdad.

A website audio message attributed to Zarqawi had threatened Wednesday to assassinate Allawi, and the CIA said Thursday that a technical analysis concluded the voice probably was Zarqawi’s.

Allawi and U.S. military officials questioned whether all the Thursday attacks were carried out by the same group, blaming Zarqawi for the Mosul attacks and loyalists of Saddam Hussein for the attacks in Baqubah.

A senior military official said the attacks did not demonstrate a high level of sophistication.

“This level of coordination could have been done with a couple of telephone calls: ‘Let’s all do it on Thursday,’ ” said the official, who warned that more attacks were likely.

Many Iraqis have fled the country, crossing into Syria and Jordan.

The bloodshed began with a series of attacks in Baqubah, about 40 miles north of the capital. A U.S. patrol was ambushed at 5:30 a.m. with guns, bombs and rocket-propelled grenades. Two soldiers with the Army’s 1st Infantry Division were killed and seven were wounded, 1st Infantry spokesman Maj. Neal O’Brien said.

About the same time, masked insurgents attacked the Blue Dome government building, a police station and several Iraqi police patrols in Baqubah.

As many as 20 Iraqi police were killed by insurgents who grabbed weapons from the station and attempted to take refuge in the city’s soccer stadium, witnesses and U.S. officials said. Many attackers wore headbands with the words, “Battalions of Monotheism and Holy War.”

Throughout the city, plumes of smoke rose and explosions were heard as insurgents battled U.S. troops. Two tanks sustained heavy damage, witnesses said.

Insurgents handed out leaflets warning citizens not to cooperate with Americans. “The flesh of those working with the Americans is more delicious than American flesh itself,” one read.

Militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at the home of Baqubah Police Chief Wallid Azzawi, razing it.

U.S. forces deployed military jets and helicopters, dropping bombs on insurgent positions near the soccer stadium, officials and witnesses said.

More than half the fatalities occurred in Mosul, where four suicide car bombs at police facilities killed at least 62 -- including one U.S. soldier -- and injured 220, officials said.

“It was a horrible explosion,” said Jassim Mohammed Hassan, 35, who was at the Wadi Hajar police station. “I saw a Volkswagen burning with a family inside. I tried to help them, but couldn’t find a fireman to help me.”

In Fallouja, U.S. Marines briefly re-entered the city and launched aerial assaults after they came under attack at a checkpoint.

A Marine helicopter was forced down outside Fallouja, but the crew was not injured.

Under a May cease-fire, Marines agreed to remain outside the city, which is under the charge of the specially created Fallouja Brigade.

A spokesman for the brigade told satellite television channel Al Arabiya that fighting started when unidentified gunmen from outside the city attacked U.S. forces, who returned fire and hit some homes in the city. Residents fired back, prompting a renewed battle.

Fallouja Mayor Mahmoud Ibrahim Juraisi said a delegation of local leaders quickly met with military leaders.

“We agreed to stop the military operations and pull troops out of the city, and to not attack resistance members,” he said.

In Ramadi, three police stations and a government office were attacked.

At the Qatana station, 14 insurgents swarmed the building, set explosives and fled, killing eight and wounding 15, U.S. officials said.

In Baghdad, a man carrying a suitcase or briefcase filled with explosives approached an Iraqi checkpoint in the Rasheed district and detonated the device, killing at least four Iraqi police and wounding several U.S. soldiers.

On Wednesday and Thursday, four other police stations were attacked with mortars, hand grenades and AK-47 rifles. Iraqi police repelled the attacks, military officials said.

Special correspondent Ashraf Khalil in Baghdad and correspondents in Fallouja, Mosul and Baqubah contributed to this report.