50 Die in Rising Iraq Violence
'Multiple-Fatality' Bombings Reach Highest Level Since Invasion

By Nelson Hernandez and Saad al-Izzi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 31, 2006

BAGHDAD, May 30 -- A series of car bombings and other attacks killed more than 50 Iraqis and one U.S. soldier on Tuesday, evidence of a new intensity in the violence in Iraq and underlining the security problems facing the country's 10-day-old government.

In an indicator of rising violence, more "multiple-fatality" bombings -- involving at least three deaths -- occurred this month than in any other since the war began in 2003, according to the Brookings Institution, which issues a twice-weekly report of security and reconstruction statistics. The report this week noted 44 such bombings as of May 25; since then, that number has risen above 50. The next-worst month was September 2005, with 46.

U.S. commanders have warned for weeks that the country's Sunni Arab insurgent movement, which they say is led by the group al-Qaeda in Iraq, would unleash an all-out offensive to weaken the new government's authority and stoke hatred between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Statistics indicate that violence has been escalating steadily for months, particularly since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra north of Baghdad on Feb. 22 kicked off a wave of sectarian killing. According to Brookings, there were 21 multiple-fatality bombings in December, when national elections were held for the new government. In January, there were 30; in February, 39; in March, 37, and in April, 40.

The number of people killed in these bombings has gradually climbed, as well, from 174 in December to 293 in April. This month's death toll is well over 300.

A tally of war-related deaths compiled by the Associated Press shows at least 4,066 Iraqis have been killed in 2006, 871 of them in May. These numbers are likely to be low due to a lack of complete reporting

The violence has not spared American troops. U.S. military authorities reported that a soldier in the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team was killed by gunfire on Monday in the northern city of Mosul, and another soldier was killed on Tuesday by a roadside bomb while on patrol southeast of Baghdad. The military also said that it had found the bodies of two Marine helicopter pilots killed in what they described as an accidental crash west of Baghdad on Saturday.

In Tuesday's deadliest incident, at least 25 people were killed and more than 50 injured when a car bomb exploded near a bus stop in Husseiniyah, about 20 miles north of Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, a deputy interior minister, said in a televised statement. American and Iraqi forces sealed off the area, and the cellphone network was shut down.

Another car bombing, in Hilla, about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killed 12 people and wounded 32. The bomb exploded in an auto dealers' area, police Capt. Muthanna Ahmad said.

A third bomb exploded in front of a bakery in Baghdad, killing 10 people, the al-Arabiya television network reported Tuesday night.

The Associated Press reported that at least seven other Iraqis died in a mortar attack and several shootings.

The attacks came a day after another string of bombings, one of which killed a U.S. soldier, two CBS News staff members and an Iraqi interpreter and wounded CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier and six U.S. soldiers.

Dozier, now at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, is in critical but stable condition, CBS reported Tuesday. She was responsive, opening her eyes to commands, a U.S. military spokesman said.

A diplomat from the United Arab Emirates taken hostage earlier this month was released unharmed, the Associated Press reported. Naji Rashid al-Nuaimi, 28, first secretary at the UAE Embassy, was seized in Baghdad's upscale Mansour district by gunmen who shot and killed his Sudanese driver.

Tuesday's violence overshadowed an unusual day in the trial of Saddam Hussein, in which the defense team mounted its most serious challenge yet to the prosecution's case.

Two of the three defense witnesses who testified on Hussein's role in the alleged execution of 148 Iraqi Shiites in retaliation for an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982 testified that at least 23 of the people sentenced to death were still alive. The witnesses also accused the chief prosecutor, Jafar al-Mousawi, of openly recruiting witnesses by offering bribes and false documentation.

The day's second witness, who was a high school student in 1982, said several of the people allegedly sentenced to death had fled to Iran and returned to Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 toppled Hussein's government.

"I have shaken hands, ate and drank with those guys who were supposedly executed," the witness said, speaking from behind a curtain to shield his identity. He gave the names of six of the 23 people, and the court vowed to investigate the truth of the claims.

Two witnesses also said they were present at a party in 2004 that celebrated the anniversary of the assassination attempt.

"One guy said, 'We tried to kill Mr. President, but fate made him survive,' " the second witness recalled. "I heard a person saying, 'Brothers, we should put hand in hand, and if Saddam remains he will be a cancer over Iraq. And brothers, our leadership in Iran greets you, and says: Spend and do not be shy to spend, from one dinar to a billion dinars. If you've got no one to supply you with documents, we've got people who can supply you with documents that no one could know was fake.'

"This guy was talking to the first, second and third witnesses who came to court" to testify for the prosecution, the witness said. "This guy was the prosecutor."

"What do you mean by 'the prosecutor?' " Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman asked.

"Mr. Jafar Mousawi."

The defense team argued that the new testimony should cause the court to drop its charges against Hussein and his seven co-defendants if it proved true; they said they had a video to support the claims, but it was not shown in court. "It's impossible," Mousawi said in a brief interview after the trial, of whether or not he attended the party. "Because I was an assistant to the director-general of a department of legal affairs. And I haven't seen Dujail in my whole life. Those pictures were fabricated, or maybe a great resemblance."

Special correspondent Naseer Nouri contributed to this report.