Internet Post Claims Key Militant Injured

Insurgency mastermind Abu Musab Zarqawi has been wounded in fighting in Iraq, according to a posting on an Internet site where Islamic militants often place messages.

The posting on the Montada website was attributed to Abu Mayzarah Iraqi, the information chief for Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq. It appealed to Muslims to “pray for our Sheik Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to recover quickly from his wounds.”

The authenticity of the message could not be confirmed, and military sources speculated that it could be a ruse to throw off forces searching for the most-wanted figure in the country. Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for many of the suicide bombings and kidnappings that have plagued Iraq.

“If he were genuinely wounded, why would you want to broadcast that?” asked Bruce Hoffman, a former advisor to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and a terrorism analyst at the Rand Corp. in Washington.

The message was posted on a day in which at least eight Iraqis died in bombings outside a suburban girls’ school and an army recruitment office. Fifteen U.S. troops have been reported killed in roadside blasts and shootings across Iraq in the last week, including nine whose deaths were announced Tuesday.

The website posting on Zarqawi gave no details of the time, circumstances or extent of his purported wounds.

“The injuries of our leader are an honor for us and a motivation to tighten the net on the enemies of God,” the message said.

U.S. forces combed hospitals in the Ramadi area late last month after rumors circulated that Zarqawi had been treated there for severe wounds.

In February, Zarqawi narrowly escaped capture at a military checkpoint near Ramadi, said a U.S. intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. After stopping a truck fleeing the checkpoint, the official said, U.S. teams found a laptop computer and other items in the vehicle that belonged to Zarqawi.

The United States has offered a $25-million reward for information leading to Zarqawi’s capture.

Tuesday’s bombings pushed the death toll from a monthlong rash of violence beyond 620, including 57 U.S. soldiers.

The approval of the new Iraqi Cabinet on April 28, a step toward stability, appears to have spurred Iraqi insurgents and foreign infiltrators to step up their attacks. In the last four weeks, there have been more suicide bombings than in any other period since March 2003, officials say.

This week, U.S.-backed Iraqi troops have responded with a sweep against suspected insurgents. The U.S. military reported that 428 suspects had been detained in two days under the joint crackdown.

In one raid, authorities said, they found two gunmen with $6 million in cash, which officials speculated might have been a ransom payment for one of the dozens of Westerners abducted by insurgents.

The bloodiest attack Tuesday occurred in the Baghdad neighborhood of Karada outside the Dijlah girls’ school.

Iraqi police in a pickup truck were pursuing a suspect past the school when a white sedan pulled up next to them and the driver detonated his explosives, Sgt. Mohammed Abed Alaa said. None of the six people killed were schoolgirls, he said, although several students were injured.

Residents lamented the bloodshed in an area with no known military or government offices, which are more common targets for insurgents.

Assassins have killed at least 18 Iraqi government officials this month, and a bombing Monday at a popular restaurant in Baghdad was believed to have targeted Iraqi police, who were regular patrons.

Two Iraqi civilians died in a mortar shell explosion in Kirkuk and five were injured in that city when gunmen opened fire on an army recruitment office that was the scene of a deadly suicide bombing three months ago.

Three U.S. troops were killed in the capital when a roadside bomb exploded next to their midday patrol. A fourth U.S. soldier was shot to death in the back of an armored vehicle by gunmen firing from a car about 2 p.m., Baghdad task force spokesman Sgt. David Abrams said.

The military also reported the deaths of four U.S. soldiers a day earlier in Haswa, 30 miles south of the capital, in another roadside explosion. A U.S. Marine was killed in Ramadi on Monday during an attack on the Blue Diamond Camp.

The incidents bring to at least 1,638 the number of U.S. service personnel killed since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Amid the unrest, a self-styled Iraqi Solidarity Committee representing various Shiite Muslim groups met to profess commitment to fighting sectarian divisions that have plagued Iraqis since Saddam Hussein’s regime fell shortly after the U.S.-led invasion more than two years ago.

The strife between Sunni Muslims, a minority sect favored under Hussein, and the majority Shiite population has been particularly fierce since the new Shiite-dominated government was installed.

At least 10 Shiite and Sunni clerics have been assassinated in the last month, spurring fears of all-out civil war.

More than 1,000 influential Sunnis met Saturday and pledged greater involvement in the drafting of a constitution and in the political process leading to elections in December. Most Sunnis boycotted the Jan. 30 vote for the transitional National Assembly, leaving them with only a handful of representatives in government.

A member of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s faction in the assembly, Rasim Awwadi, noted at a session Tuesday that there was nothing standing in the way of expanding the 55-member constitutional committee to accommodate more Sunnis. Currently, only two members are Sunnis.

“All Iraqi social components must be well-represented in this committee,” Awwadi said.

Times staff writers Greg Miller in Washington and Caesar Ahmed in Baghdad and special correspondent Ali Windawi in Kirkuk contributed to this report.