A suspected al-Qaeda in Iraq suicide bomber smashed a truck loaded with TNT and toxic chlorine gas into a police checkpoint in Ramadi, killing at least 27 people — the ninth such attack since the group’s first known use of a chemical weapon in January.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which asserts fealty to Osama bin Laden, was believed to be hitting back on Friday at Sunni tribesmen who are banding together to expel foreign fighters from their territory.
An internet posting by the Islamic Army in Iraq, meanwhile, exposed a growing and deep split among even the most radical Sunni groups, which are linked under an umbrella organisation called the Islamic State of Iraq.
Including those killed in Ramadi, 46 people died or were found dead in sectarian violence nationwide on Friday.
The bombing in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province and an insurgent stronghold, left many people nearby with breathing difficulties and some needed hospitalisation, according to police Major Jubair Rashid al-Nayef. Most were quickly released. Thirty other victims were hospitalised with wounds from the explosion.
Police opened fire as the suicide bomber sped toward a checkpoint 4,8km west of the city, police Colonel Tariq al-Dulaimi said. Nearby buildings were heavily damaged, and police were searching the rubble for more victims.
The first known chlorine attack took place on January 28, also in Ramadi. Pentagon officials first disclosed the attack, which killed at least 16 people. In low exposures, chlorine irritates the respiratory system, eyes and skin. Higher levels can lead to accumulation of fluid in the lungs and other symptoms. Death is possible with heavy exposure, according to the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Internet feud
In the internet feud, the Islamic Army in Iraq gave a rare glimpse of deep discord inside the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella organisation for militant groups.
In a Thursday posting, the Islamic Army charged that al-Qaeda — a key group inside the Islamic State — was killing fighters of the Islamic Army and other militant Sunni groups if they did not pledge loyalty to al-Qaeda.
It also charged that al-Qaeda had killed Harith Dhaher al-Dhari, a field commander of the 1920 Revolutionary Brigades, another organisation under the Islamic State umbrella.
”All Sunni people have become targets for them [al-Qaeda], especially the wealthy. They either have to pay or be killed. Anyone who criticises al-Qaeda or disagrees or points out its mistakes is killed,” the posting said.
The US military reported the death of a 20th service member so far this month — a soldier killed in a shooting on Thursday in Kirkuk province. The military said the incident was under investigation, indicating the soldier did not die in combat. Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Michael Donnelly said he could give no further details.
An average of four soldiers have died or been killed in each of the first five days of the month. If that pace were to continue, the monthly toll would be 120 and the highest since November 2004, when US forces were besieging Fallujah, then another Anbar province insurgent stronghold.
New bomb
In the deep south of the country, the Basra police commander said the type of roadside bomb used in an attack that killed four British soldiers on Thursday had not been seen in the region previously. Major General Mohammed al-Moussawi’s description of the deadly weapon indicated it was a feared, Iranian-designed explosively formed penetrator.
Two more of the bombs were discovered planted along routes heavily travelled by US and British diplomats in Basra. Weeks earlier, the American military had claimed Iran was supplying Shi’ite militia fighters in Iraq with the powerful weapons. The bombs hurl a molten, fist-sized copper slug capable of piercing armoured vehicles.
Al-Moussawi said two similar bombs were discovered on Friday morning; one was found on the road leading to Basra Palace, the compound that houses a British base and the British and US consulates. A second was uncovered in the western Hayaniyah district where Thursday’s attack occurred. The area is known as a stronghold of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
On Thursday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair called the Basra attack an ”act of terrorism” and suggested it may have been the work of militiamen linked to Iran, but he stopped short of issuing an outright accusation against Tehran. The British were killed the same day Iran released a captured British navy crew that was held for nearly two weeks for allegedly straying into Iranian waters.
Reflecting on that incident and the deaths of the British soldiers, Bruce Riedel, a scholar at the Brookings Institution Saban Centre, said Tehran was flexing its muscle to show both Britain and the US that it could strike at will.
”They have identified the British forces in Iraq and in the Gulf as a prime vulnerability,” Riedel said. ”I don’t think I can prove it, but I think it’s very interesting that in the last 100 hours six British soldiers have been killed by Shi’ites in Basra.”
Britain lost two other soldiers this week, one on Sunday and a second on Monday.
Nearer to Baghdad, Iraqi forces backed by American paratroopers swept into the troubled, predominantly Shi’ite city of Diwaniyah before dawn and killed three militia fighters, the US military said. Twenty-seven militants were captured and two Iraqi and one US soldier suffered wounds.
Residents reported heavy fighting between the US and Iraqi forces and gunmen of the Mehdi Army militia in the city, 130km south of Baghdad.
Dr Hameed Jaafi, the director of Diwaniyah health directorate, said an American helicopter fired on a house in the Askari neighbourhood, seriously wounding 12 people as the assault began. However, Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bleichwehl, a military spokesperson, said there were no US air strikes either by helicopters or planes. — Sapa-AP