BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 6 - The American military confirmed the deaths of six more servicemen from insurgent attacks on Thursday - the same day suicide bombers in Karbala and Ramadi killed at least 130 people - bringing the one-day American military death toll to 11.
Five soldiers were killed Thursday morning by a roadside bomb near Karbala, shortly before a blast that killed more than 60 Shiite pilgrims just steps from the city's Imam Hussein shrine. The military also confirmed that one marine and one soldier died in a suicide bomb attack in the Sunni Arab insurgent stronghold of Ramadi on Thursday morning that killed at least 70 Iraqis waiting to be interviewed for police jobs.
In addition, four other Americans died on Thursday, the military disclosed: Two marines were killed in Falluja from small-arms fire and two soldiers from Baghdad were killed by a roadside bomb. According to a tally by The Associated Press at least 2,194 servicemen have died in the war.
Teams of police officers from Karbala and Babil raided suspected insurgent hideouts west of Karbala today, arresting two people who confessed to having some role in planning the Karbala blast, said an official at the Babil Police Department, who offered no other details except that three other men were also arrested.
The No. 2 leader in Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, surfaced in a videotape today and described Bush administration talk of troop reductions in Iraq as a "victory of Islam" and called on President Bush to "admit defeat" in Iraq, news agencies reported. Administration officials have said troop drawdowns will occur as Iraqi forces are able to take the place of American servicemen.
Shiites lashed out in anger the day after the Karbala attack, accusing Sunni groups of encouraging violence and accusing the United States of impeding the ability of the Shiite-controlled security forces to track down insurgents. American officials have sought to rein in tactics used by the Shiite security forces.
In Sadr City, the Shiite slum in northeast Baghdad, more than 500 protesters waved green, red, yellow and white flags and marched down wide trash-strewn boulevards yelling "no, no to the Baathists" and "no, no to terrorism."
Their chants singled out one Sunni Arab political leader - Saleh Mutlak - for allegedly encouraging acts of terror. Mr. Mutlak, leader of the Iraqi National Trend Party, rejected the accusations, telling Agence France-Presse the demonstrators were falsely "throwing oil on the fire."
Marchers expressed anger at the United States, chanting "no, no to Khalilzad" - a reference to the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad - and chanted words of support for the interior minister, Bayan Jabr, a former Shiite militia leader who Sunni Arab leaders say carried out a program of torture and assassination of Sunnis.
One demonstration speaker, his voice amplified over loudspeakers in the back of a Kia flatbed truck, drew cheers from the crowd when he said, "We demand that the Americans lift their hand from the Ministry of Interior."
