BAGHDAD – Bombers struck an Iraqi army post northeast of Baghdad and civilian targets in the city as violence across Iraq killed at least 72 people Thursday, including 27 men whose bullet-riddled bodies were dumped in the capital – apparent victims of sectarian death squads.
Still, the top American military spokesman insisted the U.S. command felt “very comfortable” that it is making “steady progress” in restoring order in Baghdad.
“We are seeing those initial signs of progress being made,” Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.
The violence came as the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate adopted House-passed legislation calling for U.S. troops to begin leaving Iraq by Oct. 1. President Bush has pledged to veto the measure, and neither body passed it with enough votes to override a veto.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Oct. 1 was too soon for a withdrawal to start and criticized the Senate vote, saying it “sends wrong signals” to armed militants.
The deadliest attack occurred about 9 a.m., when a suicide car bomber killed 10 Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint in Khalis, a longtime flashpoint city about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad. Ten other soldiers and five civilians were wounded, police said.
The city is in Diyala province, which has seen some of Iraq’s worst violence recently. Mostly Sunni Arab insurgents are thought to have fled to the area to escape the security crackdown in Baghdad that U.S. and Iraqi troops launched Feb. 14.
In the capital, a car bomb exploded near Baghdad University, killing eight civilians and wounding 19, including some students, police said.
Ahmed Jassim, who works in a nearby hotel, said he rushed outside after hearing the explosion and helped carry the wounded to ambulances.
“The insurgents were surely targeting civilians because there was no military presence in the area,” he said. “I saw small pieces of flesh and a small blood pool.”
Four other civilians were killed and nine wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a market in central Baghdad, police said. The blast missed its intended target – a passing police patrol.
In the city’s sprawling Shiite Muslim neighborhood of Sadr City, U.S. troops killed three militants during a gun battle, the military said. Later in the day, a funeral procession was held in the district for an Iraqi who residents said was killed in the fighting.
Two suicide bombers attacked an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Massoud Barzani, leader of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
The blasts killed three security guards and wounded five, police said. Casualties could have been worse if guards had not opened fire on the two attackers, forcing them to detonate their explosives at least 50 yards from the office, police said.
At least 30 tortured bodies were found, including 27 that had been shot to death and left in different parts of Baghdad and three decapitated bodies found south of the capital.
The latest identifications reported by the U.S. military of personnel killed in Iraq:
Army Staff Sgt. Marlon B. Harper, 34, Baltimore; killed Saturday in Baghdad by a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
Army Cpl. Ray M. Bevel, 22, Andrews, Texas; died Saturday in Yusifiyah of wounds suffered from an explosive; assigned to the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
Marine Lance Cpl. Dale G. Peterson, 20, Redmond, Ore.; died Monday during combat operations in Anbar province; assigned to the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Staff Sgt. Steven R. Tudor, 36, Dunmore, Pa.; died Saturday of wounds suffered during combat in Baghdad; assigned to the 210th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
Army Spc. Jeremy E. Maresh, 24, Jim Thorpe, Pa.; died Tuesday in Baghdad from a non-combat related incident; assigned to C Battery, 1st Battalion, 213th Air Defense Artillery, Spring City, Pa.
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