The insurgents' guerrilla tactics have proven difficult to defend against, and the novice Iraqi security forces have been consistently outgunned trying to protect police stations, checkpoints and other static posts.
U.S. forces appeared quickly in support Friday morning, particularly the attack helicopters and warplanes whose distant buzz has been heard here in recent days circling far overhead in case needed.
U.S. soldiers inspect the site of a car bomb attack outside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Baghdad's northern Adhamiya district on Friday.
(AFP)
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Video: Simultaneous attacks in Baghdad kill 30, including at least 16 police officers in the deadliest insurgent attacks in weeks.
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Before morning, insurgents established a checkpoint a few blocks from the Saydiya police station and cut off all traffic into the area, neighborhood residents said. The area of three-story apartment buildings, called the Saddam district during the dictatorship, sits near the treacherous road that leads to the international airport.
Witnesses said gunfire began crackling around the neighborhood about 3:30 a.m., intensifying as dawn approached. "We couldn't sleep all morning because of the heavy shooting," said Adel Jabouri, 31, a school teacher.
Jabouri said several officers posted to the station's rooftop fought for hours to hold off what police officials estimate was 50 armed men. "These guys were so brave," said Jabouri, who added that the station has come under attack before but not so intensely.
Once inside the station courtyard, the militants freed an estimated 50 or more prisoners being held there and looted the police arsenal of small arms, mostly assault rifles, pistols and ammunition.
Street vendors said they saw two Kia minivans carrying the covered bodies of dead police officers from the scene. "If you go to this station now, you will not see any of our friends and colleagues," said Raheem Ali, 22, a police officer who manned a checkpoint outside the station Friday morning.
In Adhamiya, witnesses said armed insurgents began firing through the streets on the police station around 6:45 a.m., at a time when people in the neighborhood were waiting in long gasoline lines that have become common around the capital in recent weeks of fuel shortages. Much of the neighborhood was severely damaged in fighting that followed the Nov. 20 U.S. military raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque, a revered Sunni shrine nearby.
Bullet holes pock many walls, and graffiti spray-painted on the neighborhood bus stops proclaims, "Down with the pagan guard," referring to the U.S.-trained Iraqi National Guard.
"From what I hear, the mujahadeen are moving freely here and sometimes they hide in the cemetery near my house," said Haj Omar, a tailor in the neighborhood. "This is not the first time this has happened. We've gotten used to it."
A month ago a small explosive was placed inside the Haj Hameed Alwan Najjar mosque, scorched and battered in Friday morning's explosion. Many witnesses said that until the blast last month Sunnis and Shiites prayed together in the mosque, but no longer.
"Why is this happening?" said Laith Karim, 15, who has two brothers and four cousins wounded in the Friday blast. "We used to live together, as Muslims."
Correspondent Anthony Shadid and special correspondents Naseer Nouri and Bassam Sebti contributed to this report.
