Deadly attacks follow post-election quiet
BAGHDAD -- Sunni insurgents unleashed a wave of attacks yesterday, killing at least 23 people, including two US Marines and a dozen Iraqi Army recruits.
Insurgents had eased up on attacks following last Sunday's election, when American and Iraqi forces imposed strict security measures. In Baghdad, residents had a cautious sense of security, with the streets clogged with traffic, children playing in parks and outdoor markets bustling with people.
But starting Wednesday night, guerrillas launched a string of dramatic attacks.
In the deadliest incident, insurgents stopped a minibus south of Kirkuk, ordered army recruits off the vehicle and gunned down 12 of them, said Major General Anwar Mohammed Amin. Two soldiers were allowed to go free, ordered by the rebels to warn others against joining Iraq's US-backed security forces, he said.
Both Marines were killed in action Wednesday night in Anbar, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.
Elsewhere yesterday:
On Wednesday night, insurgent attacks in Tal Afar, near Mosul, and at a police station in the southern city of Samawah killed three Iraqis.
A car bomb exploded at a house used by US military snipers in Qaim, near the Syrian border, witnesses said. US troops opened fire, hitting civilians, the witnesses said. A US military spokesman had no immediate information.
The lull in attacks had prompted Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to declare on Wednesday that the success of the elections had dealt a major blow to the insurgency.
Allawi, a secular Shi'ite backed by the United States, told Iraqi television that the elections, which drew large turnouts except in Sunni strongholds, constituted a "major blow to all forces of terrorism."
He noted that attacks by Sunni insurgents had fallen dramatically since the elections but it was unclear whether the drop was the start of a trend. Allawi spoke before the 12 Iraqi recruits were killed.
"They might be reorganizing themselves and changing their plans," Allawi said of insurgents. "But the final outcome will be failure. They will continue for months but this [insurgency] will end."
