BAGHDAD, March 31 -- A car bomb blasted through a crowd of Shiite Muslim civilians and Iraqi soldiers Thursday outside a Shiite shrine in the northern town of Tuz Khurmatu, killing four people, the Iraqi army said. Elsewhere in Iraq, three U.S. soldiers have been killed in action since Wednesday.
The car bomb exploded at an Iraqi army checkpoint set up to protect pilgrims at a Shiite holy site about 110 miles north of Baghdad.
Iraqis inspect the wreckage of a car used by a suicide bomber in Tuz Khurmatu. Among those killed was a 4-year-old boy, an Iraqi general said.
(Yahya Ahmed -- AP)
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Iraq War Deaths
Total number of U.S. military deaths and name of a U.S. soldier killed in the Iraq war as announced by the Pentagon yesterday:
1,529 Fatalities
In hostile actions: 1,161
In non-hostile actions: 368
Pfc. Samuel S. Lee, 19, of Anaheim, Calif.; 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Camp Greaves, South Korea. Died March 28 of noncombat injuries.
Total fatalities include four civilian employees of the Defense Department.
A full list of casualties is available online at www.washingtonpost.com/nation.
SOURCE: Defense Department's www.defenselink.mil/newsThe Washington Post
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"I was among the dozens of people and suddenly I heard the sound of a blast, and a huge fire in two of the Iraqi army's cars," Shukran Abdullah said. "I heard the people screaming, 'Oh God, oh Hussein, help us!' "
Iraqi army Gen. Anwar Hamad Ameen said a 4-year-old boy and the bomber were among those killed and that eight Iraqi soldiers were among the wounded.
The bombing was one of several attacks targeting Shiite pilgrims during the days leading up to the holy day of Arbaeen. The day, which was observed Thursday, marks the end of the traditional 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, the prophet Muhammed's grandson who died in battle in 680.
Despite daily deaths, there has been less bloodshed among pilgrims than during several previous Shiite holidays since the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein's Sunni Muslim-dominated government.
Near Hawijah, outside the north-central city of Tikrit, a U.S. soldier was killed in action Thursday, the U.S. military said in a statement. It gave no details.
On Wednesday, an attacker fired on a U.S. Army patrol in eastern Baghdad, killing one soldier, the military said. Soldiers swept houses in the area and arrested five suspects, the military said.
Also Wednesday, attackers raked a U.S. checkpoint with gunfire in the northern city of Mosul, killing one soldier and injuring five, a military statement said.
Barham Saleh, the interim deputy prime minister, signed an order Thursday extending by 30 days a nationwide state of emergency for the fourth time, news agencies said. The order authorizes curfews, travel restrictions and other security measures intended to make it easier for Iraq to combat insurgents.
The emergency order applies to all of Iraq save the Kurdish-populated north, which is largely peaceful.
Saleh, a Kurd, signed the order in the absence of Ayad Allawi, the interim prime minister. Allawi left the country on Tuesday, walking out of a volatile National Assembly session that exposed a breakdown in Shiite- and Kurdish-led plans to form a national unity government.
Allawi left the session to catch a flight to Jordan and then possibly to London, a senior government aide said.
Allawi, a Shiite, and interim President Ghazi Yawar, a Sunni, are withholding participation in the next government pending offers of better posts and more policy influence for their small secular parties, other politicians have said.
Also Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the country plans to pull out the first 300 of its more than 3,000 troops from Iraq in September, the Reuters news agency reported.
Special correspondent Marwan Ani in Tuz Khurmatu contributed to this report.
