Roadside bomb kills 16 in Iraq

Blast appeared to target US convoy, Iraqi police say

Iraqi men stood near the passenger bus that was hit by a roadside bomb on the Basra-Nasiriyah road in southern Iraq yesterday. The bus was carrying mourners who were returning home to Basra from a funeral in Najaf. At least 22 people were wounded. (ESSAM AL-SUDANI/AFP/Getty Images)

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb ripped into a bus carrying mourners home to the southern city of Basra after attending a funeral in Najaf yesterday, killing 16 of them and injuring between 13 and 22, police said.

The bombing, part of a wave of attacks that killed at least 36 people across Iraq, highlighted the precariousness of recent security gains. The US military has acknowledged a slight increase in violence in recent weeks, but says it is too soon to call it a trend.

Major bombings are relatively rare in the overwhelmingly Shi'ite Muslim south, which has been spared the worst of the Sunni Arab insurgent violence plaguing central and northern Iraq. But Shi'ite militants periodically clash with US-led forces in the region.

Rival Shi'ite factions are locked in a bloody rivalry for power and influence in oil-rich southern Iraq.

Iraqi police said yesterday's blast, which happened on the highway between Nasiriya and Basra, appeared to be aimed at a passing US convoy but missed its target.

Elsewhere in the south, Iraqi security officials said heavy clashes erupted late Monday between their forces and militiamen loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr during raids in two sections of Kut. The fighting continued yesterday, killing at least six people and injuring 18, including four policemen, they said.

A US Special Forces unit was ambushed by a large number of fighters when it responded to a request for help from the Iraqis in Kut, the military said in a statement.

The unit returned fire and later called in an airstrike against a vehicle that was observed distributing weapons to the fighters.

Sadr renewed a cease-fire last month, but issued a statement over the weekend authorizing his followers to defend themselves if attacked.

North of the capital, a gunfight between Iraqi police and unknown assailants killed at least nine people yesterday in Mosul, the city that US commanders describe as the last urban stronghold of Sunni insurgents loyal to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

In Duluiya, also north of Baghdad, a suicide bomber in an explosives-laden minibus attacked a checkpoint manned by policemen and local tribesmen paid by the US military. At least five Iraqis were killed and 13 injured, including two children, police said.