Violence Escalates Across Iraq

A bloody and chaotic day of violence across Iraq -- including at least three suicide car bombings and an exchange of gunfire between an Iraqi crowd and a U.S. helicopter crew -- killed dozens and injured scores of others Sunday.

The latest wave of attacks, which included hours of mortar fire on the Green Zone -- where the U.S. Embassy, interim Iraqi government and many U.S. contractors are headquartered -- was centered in Baghdad but included several cities in the Sunni Triangle of central Iraq.

At least 45 Iraqis were killed and 142 wounded during the day, according to the Iraqi Health Ministry. Three Polish soldiers were killed and three others were injured near Hillah, south of the capital, when their convoy was attacked by insurgents using machine guns and armor- piercing bullets.

A journalist for the Al Arabiya television channel was killed when an American armored vehicle, damaged by fighting in a Baghdad neighborhood, exploded shortly after a U.S. helicopter opened fire on a crowd of Iraqis gathered around it.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sabah Kadhim called the day’s carnage “a definite escalation of violence.... They don’t like the progress made by this government.”

An Internet statement purportedly from a militant group associated with Jordanian insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi claimed responsibility for several of the day’s attacks and said the rebellion had gained the upper hand. The statement, which could not be independently confirmed, claimed that the insurgency possessed the “capability to surprise the enemy and hit its strategic installations at the right time and place.”

The continuing tenacity and vigor of the insurgency highlight the hard road ahead for U.S. forces and Iraqi government officials as they seek to establish control of the country before parliamentary elections scheduled for January. During appearances on Sunday news shows, U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell acknowledged the insurgency’s staying power but said the United States was committed to confronting it.

“I think the insurgency can be brought down to a level, and I’d like to see it go away entirely,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But I think, over time, you will see it being brought under control.”

He added that the U.S. planned to deal with cities in the Sunni Triangle that are outside the control of the Iraqi government and U.S.-led forces. The town of Fallouja, west of Baghdad, remains in the hands of local militants, and the U.S. military has only limited access to the northern town of Samarra under terms of a deal struck last week with local tribal and religious leaders.

American military officers have floated the possibility of holding elections that would exclude uncontrolled towns, but U.S. Embassy officials have privately rejected that option.

“Our strategy for the next several months, our political and military strategy, will be to recover each of these places and put them firmly back under civilian control, under the control of the Iraqi interim government, so that elections can be held,” Powell said.

In Baghdad, 13 people died and 61 were injured after the skirmish that ended with the explosion of a disabled Bradley fighting vehicle amid a crowd of Iraqis. A U.S. helicopter crew exchanged fire with the crowd, and there were conflicting reports about whether the aircraft fired a rocket to destroy the disabled vehicle.

The clash began about 6 a.m. when a U.S. military patrol came under fire along central Baghdad’s Haifa Street, a neighborhood known as a stronghold for insurgent activity. The Bradley fighting vehicle arrived to aid the patrol.

The area contains several large apartment buildings housing Syrian and Palestinian immigrants as well as former military and intelligence officers who were given free housing and support by Saddam Hussein’s government. U.S. and Iraqi patrols regularly come under attack from the apartments, and members of the Iraqi national guard refer to the area as “the street of death.”

Shortly before 7 a.m., a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car into the Bradley. The crew members escaped from the damaged vehicle, though as many as six of the Americans were reported injured in the blast or gunfire.

Air support was called in “to provide cover for the crew to escape,” said Rear Adm. Greg Slavonic, a military spokesman.

A crowd of residents soon gathered around the remnants of the vehicle. Some waved the black sunburst flag of Zarqawi’s militants. Hours later, several similar flags remained posted on palm trees lining the street.

The helicopter, on a subsequent pass, was fired upon by members of the crowd and returned fire, Slavonic said. The Bradley fighting vehicle exploded shortly afterward. Residents said the U.S. helicopter had fired a rocket.

“First they hit the tank, then they came back and targeted the crowd,” said Ziad Salah, an unemployed 24-year-old whose apartment directly in front of the Bradley was nearly destroyed.

The blast killed Mazen al-Tumeizi, a 26-year-old reporter for Al Arabiya television channel, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

The U.S. military said the helicopter crew was operating within its rules of engagement when it returned fire on the crowd but added that the incident was under investigation.

“We’re still trying to figure out why the vehicle exploded,” Slavonic said. “To my knowledge, no rockets were fired.”

Elsewhere in Baghdad, three American soldiers and two Iraqi civilians were injured in an attack on a U.S. Army convoy on the road to the Baghdad international airport.

Another suicide bomber struck a joint U.S.-Iraqi checkpoint in a southern Baghdad neighborhood, killing at least three Iraqi police officers. A third bomber died when his vehicle exploded after being fired upon at the gates of the Abu Ghraib prison, outside Baghdad, the military said. The blast caused little damage to the facility.

Several hours of fighting in the town of Ramadi, near Fallouja, killed 10 and injured 40, local hospital officials said.

In the northern town of Baiji, seven hostages were released, according to the Iraqi government, although the details were not immediately clear. Kadhim, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said the hostages were of Turkish and Arab nationalities, but exact identities and the circumstances of their release were unknown.

U.S. officials, meanwhile, were left to ponder the implications of a day on which a secure and stable Iraq seemed a long way off.

“It certainly was an unusual day,” said U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Schmierer. “I’d be hard pressed to say why today and what it means in the bigger picture.... Obviously we hope things will calm down.”

Late Sunday in Baghdad, the steady double-thump of mortar launch and impact could still be heard.