35 Children Die in Baghdad Bombings

A string of suicide car bombings ripped through an impoverished Baghdad suburb Thursday as residents celebrated the opening of a U.S.-funded sewage facility, killing 35 children and at least seven other Iraqis.

Many of the children were killed after they rushed to see the damage from the first explosion. They were caught in two subsequent suicide attacks that apparently targeted U.S. soldiers and Iraqi national guard officers responding to the first blast, witnesses said. It was believed to be the deadliest attack involving children since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Hysterical mothers still bleeding from their own wounds beat their heads and pulled at their hair, grieving over lost children. Victims lay in the street, tugging at the lifeless bodies of loved ones. Charred pieces of one bomb rested near the twisted remains of two red bicycles, whose wheels were decorated with colorful feathers and plastic balls.

“I picked up the body of my grandson,” said Rashid Salih, 67, who lives near the blast site. “He was cut in half. I didn’t recognize him.”

Ten U.S. soldiers were wounded, two seriously, authorities said.

The use of several bombs -- coordinated to ensnare military personnel and rescue workers -- represented a new tactic by Iraqi insurgents. Similar strategies have been used by militants in other conflicts.

The afternoon attacks occurred on a day in which 51 Iraqis were killed and 260 were wounded.

Another suicide bomber, in Abu Ghraib, outside Baghdad, rammed a checkpoint Thursday morning, killing a U.S. soldier and two Iraqi policemen. With the soldier’s death, at least 76 U.S. servicemen have been killed in September, the third-deadliest month for the American military since the war began.

September’s death toll reflects a steady increase in American deaths since June 28, when the U.S. transferred authority to the interim Iraqi government. Pentagon figures show that 42 U.S. troops were killed in June, 54 in July and 66 in August.

Early today, as a new month began, U.S. and Iraqi forces raided police stations and other government buildings in Samarra, beginning a major offensive to retake control in that city. The U.S. military said it had killed 80 insurgents and destroyed mortar sites. Hospital officials told wire services they had seen at least 21 bodies and 35 wounded.

A car bomb in the northern city of Tall Afar killed four Iraqis Thursday and wounded 60, and a gunman in nearby Mosul assassinated a local police chief.

In Baghdad, a soldier with the U.S.-led coalition was killed when militants fired rockets at a military base near the international airport.

Two days after kidnappers freed seven hostages, including two Italian aid workers, the Arab satellite TV channel Al Jazeera broadcast a video purporting to show 10 new hostages -- six Iraqis, two Indonesian women and two Lebanese men.

Even for a city accustomed to daily bloodshed, the car bombings in the Amal district and the heavy casualties among children pained many Iraqis.

Doctors struggled to save victims. The hospital, which received casualties from the Abu Ghraib bombing earlier, was unable to cope with the rush of new patients. One man with a severe leg injury died there in front of journalists, unattended.

“Bring Saddam back to us!” one distraught man shouted in the hospital. “We had no such murders during his time.”

The three bomb attacks came at the conclusion of a government-sponsored function to celebrate the opening of the sewage facility. Because Iraqi schools do not open until this weekend, many children attended with their parents.

As families headed home, a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle half a block from the facility, witnesses said. U.S. soldiers and Iraqi security forces cordoned off the area and attempted to secure it. Dozens of curious children and onlookers arrived to survey the wreckage.

Iraqi children frequently swarm around bombing sites in Iraq, hoping to salvage valuables or interact with U.S. soldiers. As children hovered near U.S. vehicles, a black car sped toward the Americans. It exploded in front of the new sewage facility. A third bomber appeared to target the Iraqi guardsmen, but he apparently detonated his explosives before he could reach them, witnesses said.

More than 140 Iraqis were wounded in the attack, the Health Ministry said.

Iraqi government officials blamed the attack on elements seeking to destabilize the country in advance of national elections scheduled for January.

“The brutal murder of ... children in this way pushes very hard at the limits of barbarity,” national security director Kasim Daoud said.

U.S. warplanes have bombed targets in Fallouja and the Baghdad slum of Sadr City in the last week, including another airstrike Thursday morning in Fallouja that killed three Iraqis, hospital officials said.

Iraqi security officials said September marked the worst month for car bombings, with militants carrying out at least 40.

Police forces are frequently the targets, as was the case in Thursday’s blast outside an Abu Ghraib police station and mayor’s office. In addition to the U.S. soldier and two Iraqi policemen killed, nearly 60 people were wounded, hospital officials said.

Meanwhile, television footage showed 10 people said to be employees of Jubail Electrical Co. kneeling before masked, armed men. The hostage-takers, calling themselves the Islamic Army, issued no demands. They also claimed to be holding two kidnapped French journalists.

Raheem Salman and Suhail Ahmed of The Times’ Baghdad Bureau contributed to this report.