Offensive Targets Al-Qaeda In Iraq

Iraqis gather outside the Shiite al-Khilani mosque in central Baghdad after a truck bombing, which destroyed storefronts and set more than a dozen nearby cars ablaze. The attack came after the lifting of a four-day curfew. (By Wathiq Khuzaie -- Getty Images)

In the first 24 hours, Davidson said, U.S. forces killed at least 30 insurgents. The U.S. military reported that one soldier was killed and two were wounded during the operation when an explosion occurred near their vehicle.

"The end state is to destroy the al-Qaeda influences in this province and eliminate their threat against the people," according to Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, deputy commanding officer of the 25th Infantry Division. "That is the number one, bottom-line, upfront, in-your-face task and purpose."

Although the U.S. military has killed numerous leaders and members of al-Qaeda in Iraq, it has had limited success in its efforts to crush the group, largely because it is a guerrilla force that studies U.S. and Iraqi tactics, learns from its mistakes and quickly adjusts to new strategies, according to analysts.

U.S. officials say the group has perhaps several thousand members, most of whom are extremist Sunni Arabs from other countries. The group has kept violence in Iraq boiling with indiscriminate attacks against Shiite and Sunni targets, seeking to foment sectarian bloodshed and push Iraq toward civil war. U.S. officials believe al-Qaeda in Iraq is the main sponsor of suicide bombings in the country; Garver called suicide attacks "the favored weapon of al-Qaeda."

Tuesday's suicide attack in Baghdad was the 12th bombing in Iraq this year to result in more than 50 fatalities, although there were conflicting reports about the number of casualties. The Reuters and Associated Press news agencies reported 78 dead and more than 200 wounded; Atta, the spokesman for the Baghdad security plan, said in a telephone interview that at least 60 were killed and more than 85 were wounded; the U.S. military, which said it had units nearby that rendered aid, said 35 people were killed and 65 were wounded.

The blast occurred at about 1:45 p.m. outside the mosque in the bustling Sinak commercial district of central Baghdad. The attack followed a relative calm that had accompanied a four-day curfew.

Shortly after Tuesday's blast, Iraqi television showed black smoke billowing above the skyline as people on the street screamed in anguish. Part of the wall surrounding the al-Khilani mosque was turned to rubble by the blast, storefronts were crumbled and on fire, and more than a dozen nearby cars were set ablaze.

Residents walked through the area collecting body parts and unrecognizable chunks of flesh.

Jabbar Mohammed al-Kaissi, 62, said he had just hopped out of his car and run across the street to fill a five-liter gas can when a truck carrying what he estimated was 60 canisters of gas exploded, sending canisters flying through the air, creating secondary explosions when they landed as far as 100 yards away.

"A ball of fire rose in the air," Kaissi said, adding that when he turned to look at the car where his wife and three daughters were waiting, he saw the wall of the mosque tumble on top of it. "I was frozen by the shock," he said from Kindi Hospital, where he took his family, all of whom died in the blast. "As I rushed to the car to see if I could save any of them, the gas canisters started to explode one after the other."

In other developments, a U.S. soldier was killed Monday by small-arms fire during combat operations in eastern Baghdad, the U.S. military reported Tuesday. Another soldier was killed and three were wounded south of Baghdad on Monday when their patrol was struck by a roadside bomb while they were going to the aid of a soldier wounded by an earlier explosion, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki fired the police chief in Basra, in southern Iraq, after weekend blasts destroyed two Sunni mosques in and around the city, the Associated Press reported. Witnesses said local police appeared to do little to stop the bombing attacks on the two mosques, which were in retaliation for bombings last Wednesday at a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, that destroyed two minarets.

Meanwhile, the auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, Monsignor Shlemon Warduni, said that the Rev. Hani Abdel Ahad, a Chaldean Catholic priest kidnapped in Baghdad on June 6, was released Sunday, according to the Catholic news agency Misna. Four youths abducted with Ahad had been released shortly after the kidnapping, Warduni said. He confirmed that the kidnappers had demanded a ransom for Ahad's release, Misna reported. It did not say whether the ransom had been paid.

Correspondent Joshua Partlow in Baghdad and other Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.