BAGHDAD, Dec. 13 -- A car bomb exploded in a line of vehicles waiting to enter the Green Zone early Monday, killing at least 11 Iraqis at an entrance busy with Iraqi security personnel and people commuting to jobs inside the heavily fortified district.
The apparent suicide attack, staged on the first anniversary of former president Saddam Hussein's capture, produced a mushroom cloud over the city. The blast took place as U.S. and Iraqi forces continued to clash with insurgents in the northern city of Mosul and in the western province of Anbar, where eight Marines were killed Saturday and Sunday. [Two more Marines were killed Monday in Anbar, the military said Tuesday.]
Iraq Casualties
Number of total U.S. military deaths and names of the U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war as announced by the Pentagon yesterday:
1,293
Fatalities
In
hostile
actions:
1,016
In
non-hostile
actions:
277
Staff Sgt. Marvin L. Trost III, 28, of Goshen, Ind.
Spec. Edwin W. Roodhouse, 36, of San Jose
Both soldiers were assigned to 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, based at Camp Greaves, South Korea. Both were killed Dec. 5 in Habbaniyah.
Pfc. Christopher S. Adelsperger, 20, of Albuquerque; 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Killed Dec. 9 in Anbar province.
Cpl. Kyle J. Renehan, 21, of Oxford, Pa.; Marine Air Control Squadron 2, Marine Air Control Group 28, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, based at Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, N.C. Died Dec. 9 in Kaiserslautern, Germany, from injuries received Nov. 29 in Babil province.
Chief Warrant Officer Patrick D. Leach, 39, of Rock Hill, S.C.
1st Lt. Andrew C. Shields, 25, of Campobello, S.C.
Both soldiers were assigned to 1st Battalion, 151st Aviation Regiment, South Carolina National Guard, based in Columbia, S.C. Both were killed Dec. 9 in Mosul.
Spec. Robert W. Hoyt, 21, of Ashford, Conn.; Army National Guard 1st Battalion, 102nd Infantry Regiment, based in Bristol, Conn. Killed Dec. 11 in Baghdad.
All troops were killed in action unless otherwise indicated.
Total fatalities include three 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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The al Qaeda-linked guerrilla group led by Abu Musab Zarqawi asserted responsibility for the attack outside the Green Zone. In a posting on a Web site often used by Islamic radicals, the group said it had targeted "a gathering of apostates and Americans in the Green Zone." Insurgents label Iraqi Muslims traitors to their faith if they work for the United States or the interim Iraq government.
When Hussein was seized in an underground hideout last December, the insurgency's tactics consisted largely of roadside bombings and hit-and-run attacks. U.S. officials had said they hoped his capture would help calm the country, but hostilities have escalated, with insurgents now staging frequent car bombings, mortar attacks and ambushes, as well as assaults by organized units.
In another sign of aggressive tactics, insurgents on Sunday conducted an organized attack on a police station south of Baghdad in an area some Iraqis call the Triangle of Death. According to the U.S. military, Iraqi police and National Guardsmen repelled the attackers.
A statement from the U.S. military hailed the outcome: "The successful defense of the Rasheed station -- the third in recent weeks -- represents an important psychological victory for the local Iraqi security forces, who were not strong enough earlier this year to prevent the destruction by insurgents of police stations in other south-central cities and towns, including Yusufiyah, Lutafiyah, Haswah, Jurf al-Sakhr and Musayyib."
Iraqi forces discovered a car bomb across the street from the station and called in Marine experts to detonate it.
A member of the Islamic Army in Iraq, a radical Sunni Muslim group that is active south of Baghdad, recently claimed that the militia maintained a roster of 65 volunteers awaiting vehicles to detonate in suicide attacks.
At the same hour that the vehicle blew up outside the Green Zone, a Louisiana National Guard battalion discovered an insurgent safe house in western Baghdad that military officials believed was also used as a car-bomb factory.
The unit found two bombs being prepared that contained about 1,000 pounds of explosives. The bombs included Italian-made antiship bombs, three 155mm artillery rounds, and 300 pounds of ammonium nitrate. The soldiers also found rockets, mortars and antitank weapons, according to officials of the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division.
In other fighting, a bomb exploded in Tarmiya, north of Baghdad, wrecking two Humvees and wounding three U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi civilian, according to U.S. military sources quoted by the Reuters news agency. Two Iraqi National Guardsmen were reported killed and five wounded in a gunfight at nearby Dijail. At Samarra, police said three children were killed in crossfire when U.S. and Iraqi forces clashed with gunmen.
One American soldier was killed in a vehicle accident Monday afternoon near a logistics base in Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad.
A National Guardsman at the Green Zone checkpoint near the site of the explosion said the casualties were either employees of the Iraqi government and the U.S. Embassy or laborers at construction sites inside the zone.
Saliah Hassan Sajit, 27, who was preparing to work at a construction site with his two brothers, said: "The three of us were standing by the side of the road waiting for friends about 30 meters from the gate when the explosion happened.
