49 die in Iraq blasts; bombs kill 5 GIs
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-20 08:42

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber detonated his car in a crowd of Shiite mourners north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 36 people and raising the death toll in two days of attacks against Shiites to more than 120. Five American soldiers died in roadside bombings.

A man is rushed into a local hospital after being wounded by a suicide attacker who killed at least 36 people and wounded 50 more in a Shiite funeral procession in Abu Saida near Baqouba, Iraq, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2005. The funeral was attacked at sunset while dozens of people were offering condolences to Raad Majid, the head of the municipal council in Abu Saida, for the death of his uncle, police officials said. [AP]

Earlier Saturday, a car bomb exploded in a crowd of shoppers at an outdoor market in a mostly Shiite neighborhood on the southeast edge of Baghdad, killing 13 people and wounding about 20 others, police reported. Witnesses said they saw a man park the car and walk away shortly before the blast.

In the north, U.S. and Iraqi forces raided a suspected al-Qaida hideout in Mosul and at least seven insurgents died — three committing suicide to prevent capture, Iraqi authorities said. Four Iraqi policemen also were killed and 11 U.S. troops wounded, Iraqi and U.S. officials said.

The second suicide car bomb exploded late in the afternoon as mourners offered condolences to Raad Majid, head of the municipal council in the village of Abu Saida, over the death of his uncle. Abu Saida is near Baqouba, a religiously mixed city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Police said about 50 people were injured. On Oct. 29, a bomb hidden in a truck loaded with dates exploded in another Shiite community in the same area, killing 30 people.

Ambulances streamed into the main hospital in Baqouba ferrying the wounded from Saturday's blast; many were rushed directly into operating rooms where doctors worked frantically to save them.

Hospital facilities were so crowded that dazed and bloodied survivors — many with serious injuries — lay in agony on gurneys in the hallways because of the surgery backlog. Doctors and nurses in blood-spattered white uniforms rushed from gurney to gurney trying to determine who to treat first.

The five American soldiers — assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division — died in a pair of roadside bombings near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. command said in a statement. Five others from the same unit were wounded.

Another soldier from the 101st died in a U.S. hospital in Germany of injuries suffered two days ago when his vehicle was deliberately rammed by an Iraqi car near Beiji, the U.S. command said Saturday.

At least 2,090 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

In Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said police and U.S. soldiers surrounded a house before dawn Saturday after reports that al-Qaida in Iraq members were inside, said Brig. Said Ahmed al-Jubouri, a Mosul police spokesman.

As a fierce gunbattle broke out, three insurgents detonated explosives and killed themselves to avoid capture. Five more died fighting, while four police officers also were killed. Al-Jubouri said officials were attempting to identify the dead insurgents.

In Baghdad, the U.S. command confirmed the fire fight and said four U.S. soldiers, nine Iraqi army troops and one policeman were killed. The U.S. statement put the insurgent death toll at seven.

Since Friday, at least 125 Iraqi civilians have been killed in bombings and suicide attacks. They include 76 people who died in near-simultaneous suicide bombings at two Shiite mosques in Khanaqin along the Iranian border. Four people have been arrested, including one who was believed to have been planning another suicide attack, a security officer in Khanaqin said.

Attacks against Shiite civilians by Sunni religious extremists have occurred throughout the Iraq conflict but spiked since last weekend when U.S. troops found up to 173 detainees in an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad.

Most of the detainees were believed to be Sunni Arabs, who dominate insurgent ranks, and some showed signs of torture. Iraq's Shiite-led government promised an investigation and punishment for anyone guilty of torture.

Elsewhere, masked gunmen killed five members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party in a series of attacks Saturday in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, police said.

Three children were killed and one was wounded when mortar rounds fired at a U.S. base about 50 miles south of Baghdad fell short of their target and struck a house, police said.