U.S. Says Iraq Troop Surge Complete

In addition, the Iraqi government and parliament have not delivered on what U.S. officials believe are the most important elements of the new strategy -- the political reconciliation measures. There has been little or no apparent progress on key issues such as dividing the country's oil revenues, reforming the constitution, readmitting more members of Saddam Hussein's banned Baath political party to public jobs and scheduling provincial elections.

The importance of the political component was underscored Thursday, when 13 Sunni mosques were attacked in apparent retaliation for the bombing of the revered Shiite shrine the day before. The destruction of two minarets of the Askariya shrine, the same religious complex where a devastating bombing in February 2006 sparked rampant killings, was immediately followed by similar rage but not the same degree of violence.

Iraqi officials attributed the difference to the appeals for calm from religious and political leaders, a rapid response by U.S. and Iraqi troops, and round-the-clock emergency curfews that kept residents in Baghdad and other cities homebound throughout the day.

Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., the top U.S. commander for Baghdad, told reporters that Iraqi security forces had increased their presence at all mosques, backed up by U.S. troops who had taken up positions nearby.

In the southern city of Basra, however, nine Sunni mosques were attacked, according to a spokesman for the organization that oversees Sunni mosques in Iraq. Most suffered only minor damage in being sprayed by gunfire, but at least one, the al-Othman mosque, was seriously damaged by rocket-propelled grenades. Police reported that Sunni mosques in and around Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, were also hit Wednesday.

"This reaction from our people against the Sunni mosques is expected," said Fadhil Abbas, 56, a retired teacher in Basra. "Our people are under great pressure and can be easily stimulated by such means."

Police patrols found 33 bodies scattered around Baghdad in a 24-hour period ending Thursday, according to an Interior Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity. By the standards of recent months, that is not a particularly high number.

Attacks on U.S. forces in Baghdad spiked Wednesday following the bombing, which some people blamed on the U.S.-led coalition. Fighters targeted American patrols and bases with mortars and rockets as well as machine-gun fire, Fil said. But the capital was relatively calm on Thursday.

Thousands of residents took to the streets in the Shiite holy city of Najaf to condemn the attack on the shrine, chanting for unity in the face of extremist violence and calling on the government to increase its protection of houses of worship.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte, on a visit to Baghdad, joined in the chorus of condemnation of the new attack on the shrine, which he called a "deliberate attempt by al-Qaeda to sow dissent and inflame sectarian strife among the people of Iraq."

Ambassador Crocker, addressing reporters at a news conference with Negroponte inside the capital's fortified Green Zone, said he has been "impressed in this 24 hours by the way the leadership of this country -- in the face of an enormous provocation -- has thus far stood together."

"The attacks on the bridges, on religious shrines, the attack on the parliament, the attacks on the population at large -- it's clearly part of a concerted al-Qaeda campaign to try to reignite widespread sectarian strife," he said, according to a transcript of the briefing. "They succeeded in February '06. Thus far, in spite of a series of very serious attacks, they haven't succeeded."