By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago
A roadside bomb in Fallujah killed 10 U.S. Marines and wounded 11 others, the U.S. military said Friday in the deadliest single attack against American forces in Iraq in nearly four months. Thursday's bomb struck a patrol from Regimental Combat Team 8 of the 2nd Marine Division, the Marine Corps said. The bomb was made from several large artillery shells, the Marines said.
At least 2,120 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
On Aug. 3, 14 Marine Reserve troops from Ohio were killed when their amphibious assault vehicle was blown up by a roadside bomb near Haditha in western Iraq.
On Friday, U.S. and Iraqi troops launched an operation against militants in the western town of Ramadi, less than two weeks before key parliamentary elections.
About 300 U.S. Marines and 200 Iraqi troops took part in "Operation Shank" in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, in the fifth such mission in the area in recent weeks designed to calm the area before the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.
On Thursday, the U.S. military played down reports by residents and police of widespread attacks against American and Iraqi installations in the city. The military said only one rocket-propelled grenade was fired but caused no injuries. Insurgents left behind posters and graffiti saying they were members of al-Qaida in Iraq.
In Baghdad, some Shiites joined hundreds of Sunni Muslims to denounce widespread arrests of suspected insurgents. They prayed together before a joint demonstration in a show of unity ahead of the potentially divisive elections.
Men waved Iraqi flags and women dressed in black robes carried posters of their missing sons. Some protesters held up portraits of Sunni clerics who have been killed since the U.S. invasion in 2003.
The joint prayer ceremony at Iraq's most famous Sunni shrine was called by Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi, who has been working to ease tensions between the rival Muslim communities.
Several prominent Shiite clerics who were invited did not show up, and Shiites made up only a small percentage of the several hundred people who turned out for the joint service. Still, the ceremony was a significant sign that some mainstream religious leaders are anxious to prevent tensions between the communities from erupting into a full-scale civil war.
Shiites make up the majority in Iraq, but were oppressed by former ruler Saddam Hussein, who is a Sunni. Since Saddam's overthrow, Shiites have controlled most of the political power in Iraq, while the anti-U.S. insurgency has been dominated by Sunnis.
Sunni suicide bombers have targeted Shiite mosques and gatherings.
And Sunni leaders have complained of attacks by Shiite death squads tied to the government. Last month, U.S. troops discovered an Interior Ministry jail filled with 173 detainees, some showing signs of torture. Interior Minister Bayn Jabr suggested some making the torture allegations were supporting the insurgency or had a personal score to settle.
The ministry is "killing our sons at the orders of the (Iranians)," one poster read, referring to alleged ties between Jabr and Iran. Another poster referred to Jabr as an American agent.
As part of security measures for the elections, Jabr decided to ban all non-Iraqi Arabs from entering the country until further notice, said two senior Interior Ministry officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
"This step is part of the security measures taken for the elections," said one of the senior ministry officials. "It covers all border points whether airports, land border crossings and ports."
The U.S. command in Iraq said Thursday that suicide bombings fell in November to their lowest level in seven months, citing the success of U.S.-Iraqi military operations against insurgent and foreign fighter sanctuaries near the Syrian border.
But the trend in Iraq has not resulted in less bloodshed: 85 U.S. troops died during the month, one of the highest tolls since the invasion.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a coalition operations officer, warned that al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, will likely step up attacks in the next two weeks to try to disrupt parliamentary elections Dec. 15.
Lynch told reporters that suicide bombings declined to 23 in November as U.S. and Iraqi forces were overrunning insurgent strongholds in the Euphrates River valley west of the capital.
Communities along the river are believed used by foreign fighters, who slip into the country from Syria and travel down the river highway to Baghdad and other cities.
"In the month of November: only 23 suicide attacks — the lowest we've seen in the last seven months, the direct result of the effectiveness of our operations," Lynch said.
Car bombings — parked along streets and highways and detonated remotely — have declined from 130 in February to 68 in November, Lynch said.
However, suicide attacks have not consistently decreased over the past year. After more than 70 such attacks in May, the number fell in August by nearly half and then climbed to over 50 two months later.
And despite the decline over the past month, there has been no letup in the relentless toll of American deaths at a time of growing discontent in the United States over the Iraq war.
The U.S. command said four American service members were killed Wednesday, three of them from hostile action and the fourth in a traffic accident. The deaths raised the American fatality toll for November to at least 85.
That was down from the 96 American deaths suffered in October — the fourth deadliest month since the war began in March 2003. But it was well above the 49 deaths in September. U.S. monthly death tolls have hit 80 or above during 10 of the 33 months of the war.
There also has been no decline over the past six months in the Iraqi death toll from suicide attacks, according to an Associated Press tally. In November, at least 290 Iraqis were killed in such attacks, more than double the figure from the previous month. The count shows the Iraqi toll ranging from at least 69 deaths in August to at least 356 in September.
