U.S. Says Iraq Troop Surge Complete

Shortly before the briefing, a flurry of mortar shells crashed down in the Green Zone, the Associated Press reported. It was unclear if they caused any casualties.

Residents in Samarra, 65 miles north of Baghdad, said by telephone that they feared an outbreak of further violence and hoped to flee the country when the curfew was lifted. In Sadr City, the vast Shiite enclave in eastern Baghdad that is home to many Shiite militiamen, residents said they were planning to take to the streets Friday to protest the destruction of the shrine.

"Because of the fire inside our hearts, we went out protesting yesterday, but it was not organized or official," said Laith Abu Karrar, 29, a cigarette vendor from Sadr City. "Tomorrow it will be organized, and we will condemn the attack and condemn the occupation." Many Shiites call the U.S. military presence here an occupation.

Because the Samarra shrine had been largely destroyed last year, its famous golden dome brought down, the second attack came as less of a surprise and failed to ignite the same raw emotions, said Ayad al-Samarrae, a Sunni lawmaker.

"Also, the statements that accompanied the first attack made people angry," he said. "But now the statements were all calling for calm and self-control to help contain the crisis."

Meanwhile on Thursday, the insurgent group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq released a video purporting to show a masked gunman shooting 14 members of the army and police one after the other.

Special correspondents Naseer Nouri and K.I. Ibrahim in Baghdad, Saad Sarhan in Najaf and other Washington Post staff in Iraq, and staff writer Ann Scott Tyson at the Pentagon contributed to this report.