U.S. Bombs Insurgent Targets in Baghdad; Civilian Toll Reported

U.S. warplanes bombed suspected insurgent positions in a restive slum of the Iraqi capital Monday, and hospital officials said 10 people, including civilians, were killed.

The airstrikes in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood underscored how U.S. forces are stepping up firepower in their battle against insurgents. Such aerial attacks have become increasingly common in Sadr City, Fallouja and other places where anti-American militants still exert significant control.

The strikes also raise questions about whether a fragile peace agreement with militiamen loyal to radical Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr will hold. Tensions have risen in recent days between his followers and U.S. forces in Sadr City and in the holy city of Najaf, south of Baghdad, where the two sides ended a bloody standoff in August.

Insurgents on Monday continued their attacks against U.S. troops and Iraqi security forces. Seven Iraqi national guard members were killed in two car bombings: four in Mosul and three at a checkpoint near Fallouja, police officials told Associated Press.

Thirty-four car bombs have been detonated in September in Iraq, the highest monthly tally since the war began in March 2003, U.S. military officials said.

Two U.S. soldiers died Monday. In Balad, north of Baghdad, a 1st Infantry Division soldier was killed when insurgents opened fire on his patrol, which was responding to a traffic accident that had killed another American soldier.

The two deaths brought the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq this month to 77, according to a compilation of Pentagon news releases by Globalsecurity.org, making September the fourth-deadliest month for American forces since the start of the war. At least 1,049 U.S. military personnel have died, according to a Pentagon tally Monday.

With Iraqi parliamentary elections set for January, U.S. military officials are planning to accelerate efforts to crack down on insurgents and restore peace.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Sunday that a “major thrust” of U.S. efforts in Iraq in the near future would be to reclaim from insurgents areas considered “no-go” for U.S. and Iraqi government forces and aid agencies. The air attack in Sadr City early Monday was part of that effort.

U.S. officials said they had killed four insurgents and destroyed several enemy positions in Sadr City with a “precision strike” on “positively identified targets.” Witnesses said the attacks began about 1 a.m. and lasted several hours.

“We were terrified because the strikes were random,” said Majeed Minshed, 23, a Sadr City resident. “By the time it was over, we did not believe we were still alive.”

Sabah Abaas, an emergency room medical assistant at Jawader Hospital, reported 10 people killed and 71 injured, including women and children.

U.S. officials called reports of civilian casualties “suspect” but said they would investigate. They suggested civilians might have been killed by insurgents who responded to the U.S. attack by firing four mortar rounds at an American base shortly after the airstrikes began. Three of the mortar rounds missed and landed outside the base. A civilian vehicle was destroyed, military officials said.

“The enemy shows no concern for the Iraqi people,” Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jim Hutton said.

Rising civilian deaths have put U.S. officials on the defensive. According to the Iraqi Health Ministry, nearly 3,200 Iraqi civilians have died since April in terrorist attacks and clashes between U.S. forces and insurgents.

American officials say the civilian toll has been exaggerated. A senior military official called reports of civilian deaths in Fallouja “propaganda” and suggested that local hospitals had been infiltrated by insurgent forces.

“We have seen pictures [of injured people] but we can’t authenticate that the individuals in the hospital are in the hospital because of [a U.S.] attack that day,” the official said.

In other developments Monday, kidnapped Iranian diplomat Faridoun Jihani was freed, Iranian Embassy officials said in a statement. Jihani, who was the Iranian consul in the city of Karbala, south of Baghdad, was abducted from his vehicle Aug. 4 by a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq.

And Jordan’s King Abdullah II said two female Italian aid workers who had been abducted and reported killed were alive. Negotiations for their release were continuing, he said.

An estimated 140 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq, including British businessman Kenneth Bigley, whose fate remains unclear. His family continued to plead for his release Monday, distributing leaflets and making radio appeals in Iraq.

Two of Bigley’s American co-workers, Eugene “Jack” Armstrong and Jack Hensley, were beheaded. The men were believed to have been abducted by the terrorist group Jamaat al Tawhid wal Jihad, led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi.

A Times special correspondent in Sadr City contributed to this report.